What are the Tibetan monks arguing about?

When you first get to the Tibetan monks debate, you just do not understand what is happening. Tibetan monks, who in theory should be quiet and calm, argue, shout at each other, wave their hands, for some reason they constantly clap and almost fight! And is this a Buddhist monastery? What can one argue so fiercely about?

Although Socrates, in antiquity, said that it was "the truth is born in a dispute", and, as it turned out, Tibetan monks heeded his words.

The roots of the debate lie in ancient India, where Siddhartha Gautama (in other words, Buddha Shakyamuni) proved his teachings in the debate. And in the VIII century, it was during the debate in Samye Monastery that Tibet finally decided on its religion. Since then, debates have become an integral part of the training of monks in the monastery, although now they are practiced only in some of them. I saw debates in the monasteries of Sir and Drepung, and I’ll tell about them.

The essence of the debate is to question the teachings of the Buddha and through a dispute to know its essence. Buddha said that by blind faith in his words you won’t achieve anything, you can understand and realize this world only through personal understanding. And to better understand, you need to debate. That is what the monks do during the debate.

The monks go out into the courtyard (although this is more for show, you can discuss anywhere) and are distributed in pairs or in small groups. One monk is appointed as “speaker” and the other (or others) is his opponent (s). The speaker's goal is to ask questions and confuse the one who answers. The questions are naturally on a religious subject, as a rule, some of the holy books that monks study in lectures. Debate, by the way, is something like our seminars, which test the knowledge gained in lectures.

The speaker sets the subject of the dispute. At the same time, it is imperative to observe the ritual according to which, with each statement or question, you must clap your hands loudly and lunge forward. The stronger the argument, the louder the pops. Some (especially young) monks do it very cinematically and emotionally! Still, tourists are looking at them and clicking on their phones and cameras.

There is even such a legend according to which one monk so vehemently debated that, slamming his hand hard, he killed his opponent.

The person sitting to whom the question is addressed (or more precisely the thesis) either agrees, or argues and questions it, or ... is silent if it does not know what to answer.

During the debate, the monks openly and loudly shout at each other, and sometimes it may seem that they are about to fight ... But soon they are already smiling, patting each other on the shoulder and laughing joyfully together.

The debate is necessarily watched by the senior Lama, who can interrupt or stop the argument if he goes too far.

Now such a debate can be seen in two Tibetan monasteries located in Lhasa - Sir and Drepung. In Drepung, the debate seemed more “real” to me, there were no tourists there, and they allowed us to see only from afar. In Sir, on the contrary, a real show was made from the debate. Tourists sit around the perimeter of the courtyard, the monks go on it and begin to deliberately debate. It looks very ostentatious ... but people like it)

So come to Tibet and look at the Buddhist monks screaming at each other, who in disputes learn the secrets of the universe.