Oldal 163 [163]
OCR
MONGOLIAN MONKS" STUDIES IN LHASA"S MONASTERIES the monks to the morning prayer. In Drepung a little boy and in Sera an adult monk shouted "come, come" (Tib. phebs, phebs) from the top of their own assembly halls. Then two principal lamas (Tib. zhal mgo and dbu mdzad) opened the door of the hall and started to chant the morning prayer. It was not obligatory for every monk so there were just few monks on this session, mainly the poorer ones who did not want to pass an opportunity for free tea after the prayer." This followed the performing of religious rites or services for laymen in exchange for food and money gifts. Monks needed this kind of incomes because they received a salary from the monastery several times a year’’ but this was not enough to subsist and had to support themselves.” Later the monks gathered again in the assembly hall and the principal lamas sat in judgement on monks who broke the regulations and imposed penalty upon guilties. The most common punishments were the caning and the confiscation of property.” Monks had four lessons per day, two lessons before noon and two after lunch. The educational period (Tib. chos thog) was only half the year then the studying was interrupted for half a year (Tib. chos mtshams, ‘non-educatial period’).*° In the evening, lamas gathered in the hall of the monastery to pray and recite Buddhist texts while drinking tea.*! Education in the Monasteries When Mongolian monks entered newly into one of these monastic centers, they entered immediately the classes on philosophy, after they demonstrated that they had already mastered the earlier materials. They did this by going to the lessadvanced classes and defending themselves against the students of those levels. They would then begin their education in the class appropriate to their level of previous education.* When a layman newly became a monk, first he needed a teacher who bore responsibility for him. In Tibet, monks could enter a monastery at any age, but it was common for them to join when they were seven years old. He studied first reading 26 Cybikov, G.: Buddist-palomnik u svjatyn’ Tibeta, p. 151. In general, monks’ income came from a combination of sources: 1) salary from their monastery or college, 2) alms given to individual monks at the time of the prayer assemblies, 3) income from their own labour, and 4) support in food from their natal families. Many monks spent a considerable amount of time engaged in income-producing activities including crafts like tailoring and medicine, working as servants for other monks, engaging in trade, or even leaving the monastery at peak agricultural times to work for farmers. Goldstein, M. C.: Tibetan Buddhism ..., p. 10. 8 Goldstein, M. C.: Tibetan Buddhism ..., p. 23. In monasteries had death penalty as a possible punishment but they didn’t use it. Cybikov, G.: Buddistpalomnik u svjatyn’ Tibeta ..., p. 152. 3° Tsybikov, Gombozhab: A Buddhist Pilgrim at the Shrines of Tibet. Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library, Volume 42. Leiden 2017, p. 23. 3! Tsybikov, G.: Buddist-palomnik u svjatyn’ Tibeta ..., p. 152. 2 Sopa, Geshe Lhundup: Lectures on Tibetan Religious Culture. The Library Tibetan Works, Delhi 1983, p. 18. 161
