Even though this regional house was not the largest in Jé College (grwa tshang byes), it occupied a prestigious place in the college regional house hierarchy because of its historical importance in the founding of the monastery. Oral tradition has it that the temple of this regional house was the first temple built at Sera (se ra) by Jamchen Chöjé (byams chen chos rje), the founder of the monastery. As Sera expanded, this building became the site of Gya College (grwa tshang rgya), and eventually evolved into the Bati Regional House (sba ti khang tshan). The main temple and the monastic quarters on the southern side of the compound are original. The northern wing of monks’ rooms has been substantially rebuilt. Almost all of the statues in the temple are new. The Jowo Rinpoché (jo bo rin po che) statue in this regional house is said to be a replica of the one in the Jokhang (jo khang).

Bati was the proprietary regional house of six smaller, subsidiary houses (called mi tshan), although this appears to be the vestige of a relationship that, while perhaps once important, in time became a mere formality. The six subsidiary houses were Dakpo (dwags po), Tsangpa gtsang pa), Epa (e pa), Nyelpa (gnyal pa), Gyejé (rgyas byes), and Tsetang (rtses thang).

The present disciplinarian (dge skos) of Sera, who lives in the Böpa apartment house (bod pa spyi khang), is the only elder monk from Bati Regional House left in the monastery.