during our day at sakya, we stumbled across a relatively modest group of monks debating in the courtyard outside one of the main halls. given the size of the monastery and its monastic community, the numbers seemed thin to me, but there they were, working to deepen their understanding of the material they were studying and opening their views to challenge by others, drawing on this centuries-old dialogic form of tibetan debate. i spoke with several of them and learned that all the debate classes were present at the same time. of course, this monastery begin sakya the commentarial sources differed from those more familiar to me from sera and other gelug monasteries, the major topics were the same... and so was the rough and tumble mix of playfulness and serious intellectual inquiry i knew well from other corners of tibetan culture.
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