Buddhism, Sikhism and Daoism
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The generic term for the Buddhist monastic order is the sangha; the terms denoting the
order in all Buddhist countries are literal translations of the Indian word. Buddhism, far more
than in other monastic traditions of the world—with the possible exception of Jainism—attaches
central importance to the order, in part because the Buddha began every one of his sermons with
the address bhikkhave (“O ye begging monks”). The recitation of the “threefold refuge” formula
that makes a person a Buddhist, either lay or monastic, enacts a pledge of “taking refuge” in the
Buddha, the dharma (“teaching”), and the sangha; most commentaries imply that the three
elements are equally important. In later northern Buddhism (i.e., Mahayana), the role of the
historical Buddha was reduced, and the order (sangha) acquired an even more exalted position.
The monastic discipline of the Buddhist clergy varies widely in the different parts of the
Buddhist world. In principle, the rules are laid down in the vinaya (monastic rules) portion of the
Buddha’s sermons, but monastic traditions and regulations have also been shaped by
environmental and cultural conditions. Rules concerning distance from lay settlements, for
example, had to be interpreted and implemented differently depending on whether tropical,
moderate, or (as in the case of Tibet and Mongolia) subarctic climatic conditions prevailed.
Although celibacy is postulated for the Buddhist clergy everywhere, there have always been
notable exceptions. The married monks of pre-20th-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and those of
some of the Japanese Buddhist orders are conspicuous examples. Since the vows of the Buddhist
monk in principle are not permanent, the theoretical emphasis on celibacy became academic in
many parts of Asia. In South and Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks were and still are teachers to
the people—not only in religious matters but also in the realm of basic education—particularly in
Myanmar. There appears to be a high degree of monastic involvement with lay society, and the
provision of special amenities for monks who prefer a strictly contemplative life, as in Sri Lanka
and Thailand, has been well defined in practice. Differences in living style between the northern
(Mahayana, or “Greater Vehicle”) and the southern (Theravada, called Hinayana, or “Lesser
Vehicle,” in derogation) monastic institutions are quite radical. The fundamental activity,
however, remains meditation (Sanskrit dhyana, Pali jhana, from which is derived the schools of
Buddhism known as Chan in China and Zen in Japan). The path of meditation leads positively
toward the intuitive understanding of momentariness, the condition of existence—or, to state it
negatively, toward the total rejection of all notions of permanence.
Although Chan or Zen remains by far the best-known branch of Mahayana Buddhism,
China evolved other major schools, many of which spread to Japan. Tiantai Buddhism,
originating with Zhiyi (538–597) at Mount Tiantai in China, aspired to incorporate other schools
within a comprehensive vision. A Japanese pilgrim, Saichō (767–822), brought Tendai
monasticism to Mount Hiei near Kyōto, Japan, where it has flourished ever since. Even more
elaborate in its ceremonies is Vajrayana (Tantric or Esoteric) Buddhism, which under the name
Zhenyan (“True Word”) thrived in 8th-century Tang-dynasty China and under the name Shingon
(the Japanese pronunciation of Zhenyan) was taken to Mount Kōya in Japan by Kūkai (c. 774–
835). As early as the 4th century ce, China produced Pure Land Buddhism, whose worship of the
buddha Amitabha (Amida in Japanese) appealed above all to laypeople. Particularly in Japan,
through the leadership of Hōnen, Shinran, and Ippen in the late 12th and 13th centuries, Pure
Land Buddhism eventually dispensed with monastic obligations altogether. Moreover, since the
late 19th century, monks in many Japanese traditions have been permitted to marry, and major
Japanese temples now house married monastics.
Sikhism
Sikhism, founded by the Punjabi reformer Nanak, was the least sympathetic of all
indigenous Indian religions to monastic inspirations. The Sikh monastic Nirmal-akhada and the
quasi-monastic Nihang Sahibs came to terms with the overall Indian tendency to establish
monastic traditions that express full-time involvement in redemptive practice. Since the 19th
century the monastic Udasi order (founded by Nanak’s elder son Siri Chand) has achieved a
most successful rapprochement with Hindu elements. Its disciplinary, sartorial, and cenobitic
settings are identical with those of the Hindu sannyasi. They refer to the Adi Granth, the sacred
book of the Sikhs, as their basic text, in spite of the fact that their intramonastic and
intermonastic discourse proceeds along lines similar to those of the orthodox Hindu orders. This
accounts for the fact that the Udasi is now respected as equal to the most prestigious and ancient
Hindu orders.
Daoism
Daoism, an ancient Chinese religion (with later Buddhist influences) that inspired some
emulation in Japan and Korea, holds a middling position with respect to monastic ventures, lying
somewhere between the powerfully antimonastic Confucian schools that always represented the
official culture and mainstream of sophisticated Chinese opinion and the radically monastic
Buddhists. Some scholars believe that Daoism may have come under Indian influences, because
it originated in the southwestern parts of China. The chief object of Daoism, however, is not
redemption or salvation, at least as those goals are interpreted in other scripturally based
religions. Rather, the ultimate aim of the Daoist practitioner is longevity or ultimate physical
immortality. The Daoist quest after the elixir of life, and its expression in cryptic and enigmatic
poetry that is well known to, and generally misunderstood by, modern European and American
readers, are in no way comparable to the supererogatory search of the monastics thus far
discussed. The Daoist settlements of sages, in forests and mountain glades as well as in the cities,
are, at best, analogous to the eremitic type of proto-monasticism. When Daoist settlements were
cenobitic or celibate, these features were indeed incidental to Daoism, which defies and rejects
rules of any corporate kind.
Other Asian varieties
Of the slightly less than 100 monastic and quasi-monastic orders in South Asia, well
over half developed locally or regionally. They usually lack a body of rules and conventions that
would be recognized or accepted by a wider Hindu-Buddhist-Jain consensus. About a dozen
orders are repudiated as heretical and are accused of using religious pretexts to indulge in
antisocial behaviour. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantric groups (practicing occult, sometimes
sexual, meditative techniques) represent esoteric countermonasticism in India, though these
practices have been accepted fully in certain Tibetan Buddhist hierarchies.
Of the not numerous but clearly monastic or quasi-monastic organizations of recent
origin in other parts of Asia, the Vietnamese Cao Dai achieved some impact. Founded in 1926 in
opposition to French colonial rule, they maintained a military organization and their own army
“regulars” from 1943 to the mid-1950s. Cao Dai propounded an eclectic theology, with a pope
and such heterogeneous patron saints as the 19th-century French novelist Victor Hugo, the
World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the Buddha. Members were bound
by vows that did not include celibacy or poverty but stressed obedience to the hierarchy. Cao Dai
survives at its monastery-fortress headquarters at Tay Ninh northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
