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The Web of Tibetan Monasticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Beatrice D. Miller
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Extract

The study of the Tibetan religious institution, usually regarded as the province of Orientalists, Sanskritists, and students of comparative religion, has much of value to offer the social scientist. The institution represents a striking demonstration of a cultural force that has defied the dominant cultural patterns of China and India, under whose political authority a major portion of the religion's followers live. Simultaneously, the institution has united in a distinctively Tibetan cultural pattern many disparate groups, such as the Lepcha of Sikkim and to an extent even the revitalized Buddhist Newars of Nepal, whose original cultures resembled that of either their tribal or Hindu neighbors. Into this institution are woven nomadic pastoralists and urban craftsmen, slash-and-burn agriculturalists and people engaged in international trade, world-travellers and serfs bound to the land, brigands and saintly mystics. Rather than Tibet and its monasteries being an isolated geographic and cultural “refuge” area, the study of this key institution reveals a far more dynamic picture.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , February 1961, pp. 197 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1961

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References

1 Snellgrove, David, Buddhist Himalaya (Philosophical Library, New York, 1957), pp. 97–98 discusses the role of Tibetan monks among the Newars.Google Scholar

2 Tucci, Giuseppe, To Lhasa and Beyond, trans. Carelli, Mario (Rome, 1956), p. 12.Google Scholar

3 SirBell, Charles, Tibet, Past and Present (Oxford, 1924), p. 120Google Scholar and Tieh-tseng, Li, Historical Status of Tibet (New York, 1956), p. 68Google Scholar, discuss the past role of hBras-spungs. Li discusses (p. 188) Se-ra's defiance of the government. In view of statements made by Bell and others about hBras-spungs being “pro-Chinese,” perhaps because so many of its monks came from areas under Chinese control, it was especially interesting to note that reports indicated that the monks of both Se-ra and hBras-spungs, as well as of dGa-ldan, had united to hold off the Chinese in 1959.

4 In fact, within the strongholds of the dGe-lugs-pa there is some question as to the actual doctrinal derivation of the Medical School, and perhaps also of the school for clerical officials.

5 The Lamaist Maharajas of Sikkim and of Bhutan are sponsors of the Maha Bodhi Society which is comprised primarily of Indian Buddhists and numbers many Indian government officials among its membership.