Candidates for advanced degrees at the High-level Tibetan Buddhism College of China in Beijing debate Buddhist scripture on Friday with heated arguments. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

He noted that candidates will be challenged on five major Mahayana sutras－the classics of Tibetan Buddhism that every monk must study and understand－by senior monks from Buddhist temples or colleges from the Tibet autonomous region and the surrounding Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu provinces.

Sherab Nyima, a 27-year-old Tho Ram Ba candidate at the college, said he was more nervous than he expected as he prepared for the debating session.

Nyima became a monk in the Tibetan Bon region when he was 8 years old, and has been studying the five major Mahayana sutras since he was 16.