Debate School began as a series of video lessons introducing the purpose and practice of Nalanda Debate.

The idea to produce such a video series came in 2015 during a lecture in the Introductory Logic and Debate course at Sarah College for Higher Tibetan Studies, Dharamsala, when the professor, Gen Lodroe, suggested that it would become a valuable resource for those wanting to learn to debate and asked his students if anyone wanted to heed the call to produce the series.

While the videos were in production, Professor Marieke van Vugt of the University of Groningen, together with several other interested students and researchers, started meeting online with some monks from Sera Jey Monastic University to learn Nalanda Debate. This led to the first Debate Winter School, a 5-day intensive workshop hosted online (using a platform called Gather) by Sera Jey in 2021. Several more courses were organized over the ensuing years, including three 30-day intensive, in-person debate schools held at Sera Jey Monastery in South India.

While Sera Jey’s public in-person programs are on hold for the time being, there are several ongoing programs hosted by a variety of organizations.

We aim to make this website a resource that provides a comprehensive portal to the existing options for learning and practicing Nalanda Debate; an introduction to the practice, together with its history; and a repository of text and video resources to aid beginner and novice debaters in their practice.