Geshe

A geshe is a scholar who has completed the long monastic curriculum of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, a course of study that classically runs for many years.

The degree of learning

The title marks the completion of the extended monastic course of study of the Gelug school, classically some fifteen to twenty years or more of training in logic, epistemology, the perfection of wisdom, the middle way philosophy, monastic discipline and metaphysics, pursued through the rigorous method of formalised debate, so the geshe is above all a master of the scholastic and philosophical tradition. The highest ranks of the degree are awarded to those who excel in this long course and its examinations, and the geshe is qualified to teach the philosophical curriculum.

Learning, not tantric office

The geshe standing is scholarly, and it is distinct from the office of the lama who confers tantric empowerment and from recognition as a reincarnate teacher, so a geshe is a learned scholar-monk who may or may not also hold those other roles, and the conflation of scholarly and tantric authority is an error the distinction guards against. The Sakya school has a comparable scholarly qualification. Entry is by the completion of the curriculum within the great monastic colleges, so the office rests on demonstrated mastery of the philosophical tradition. The geshe thus represents the scholarly summit of the Gelug system, the master of its long course of study and debate, the counterpart in learning to the offices of empowerment and recognition that carry other kinds of authority in the tradition.

For most of its history the geshe degree was, in practice, unavailable to women, since the extended philosophical curriculum and formal examinations it requires were taught within monastic colleges that trained monks rather than nuns, and Tibetan Buddhist nunneries historically lacked the same institutional access to the full course of study, so no formal path existed for a nun to earn the equivalent qualification regardless of her ability or dedication. Reform efforts over recent decades built specific nunneries offering the full traditional curriculum to female students, and in 2016 the first cohort of Tibetan Buddhist nuns was awarded the Geshema degree, a female-specific but academically equivalent counterpart to the traditional geshe qualification, after completing the same lengthy course of study and passing the same rigorous examinations previously open only to monks.

The change was significant enough to draw public comment from the Dalai Lama himself in support of it, and further cohorts of geshemas have been certified in the years since, though the numbers remain small relative to the male geshe population built up over centuries, and the practical integration of geshemas into teaching and leadership roles historically reserved for male geshes within Gelug institutions remains an ongoing and still developing process rather than a fully settled matter.