Ten eminent monks obtained Lharampa Geshe, the highest degree in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, by passing a traditional sutra debating test in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Thursday. [Photo/China Tibet Online]

LHASA,Tibet, April 4 (China Tibet Online) Ten eminent monks obtained Lharampa Geshe, the highest degree in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, by passing a traditional sutra debating test in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Thursday.

More than 100 monks attended the debating session at Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, where the ten candidates from ten monasteries of Gelug Sect in Tibet had a fierce argumentation of ideas regarding the content of the five major shastras of Exoteric Tibetan Buddhism.

Drukhang Thubten Khedrup, head of the Tibet branch of the Buddhist Association of China, said that the ten monks all displayed a wide range of knowledge and are worth the Larampa Geshe, China Daily reported.

Geshe Lharampa represents the highest level of attainment of monks in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, which is like a Buddhism doctorate degree. The annual Lharampa Geshe event was stopped in 1988, and resumed in 2005. A total of 74 Tibetan monks have obtained the degree in the past decade.

Ngawang Sekyi, from Drepung Monastery, won first place yesterday. He said to pass the exams took him more than 30 years of hard study and five major exams. Losang Trinley from the Sera Monastery and Losang Chulo from Champa Ling Monastery won the second and third place in the exam.

"First I want to pay my great appreciation to my masters who have been leading me in the right direction, and secondly to my study mates who supported me in the course of my growing up," said the 46-year-old Ngawang Geshe.

"What I achieved today only means a small progress for me, and I will regard this as an encouragement to myself, and I will continue to work hard," he said. "I wish Buddhism will be prosperous, all living beings are free of disasters, and the global world has no war."

Photo shows the candidates debate sutras infront of the judges. [Photo/China Tibet Online]

Photo shows the candidates debate sutras infront of the judges. [Photo/China Tibet Online]

Photo shows the candidates debate sutras infront of the judges. [Photo/China Tibet Online]