The newly built Mé College assembly hall in Sera, India

The Mé College is the smaller, but older, of Sera's two philosophical colleges (mtshan nyid grwa tshang). It's official name is "The Jewel-Island for Study and Contemplation" (thos bsam nor gling). The word Mé (smad) means "lower," and the college was probably called this because it sits at a lower elevation (farther south) in Sera's tiered landscape. Shortly after the founding of the monastery, the third holder of the Sera throne divided the institution up into various sections or colleges, appointing his senior students as preceptors of these different sections. Kunkhyen Jangchub Bumpa (kun mkhyen byang chub ‘bum pa, 15th century) was appointed preceptor (slob dpon) of the Mé section, and today he is reckoned as its founder.

In time, the Mé College evolved a fixed educational curriculum that focused on the study of the great Indian Buddhist classics. As was the case with the Ché College, there appears to have been a good deal of diversity in the types of textbooks (yig cha) used in the early days of the Mé College. Geshe Yeshe Wangchuk, a contemporary historian, for example, tells us that the textbooks of Gungru Gyaltsen Zangpo, the third Sera throne-holder, were popular for almost a century at Mé. Eventually, however, these early yigchas were banned in favor of the textbooks of Khedup Tenpa Dargye (mkhas grub bstan pa dar rgyas, 1493-1568). Although the chief mission of the Mé College was to instruct monks in the exoteric, philosophical/textual tradition, less than 25% of all monks in the college were textualists. The remaining monks were mostly workers.