BUDDHIST MONASTICISM

The monastic tradition of Buddhism is probably the oldest in the world, and has certainly been the most widespread, both geographically and culturally. The traditional dates for the Buddha given in Western scholarship are c.566–486 B.C.: the order he founded has existed for two and a half thousand years. Although by the medieval period the Buddhist monastic order had all but disappeared from India, by that time it had been established in almost every other part of Asia. During the centuries following the Buddha's death various different “schools” of Buddhism arose; this book describes the ideal monastic life envisaged by one of them, the Theravāda or “Way of the Elders.” These ideals are preserved in the Pali canonical texts and commentaries and have been followed in India from the ancient to early medieval periods (a small modern presence remains in Bengal, and, by recent reintroduction, in Nepal); in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) from the third century B.C.; and in mainland Southeast Asia (what are now Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia) from medieval times until the present day. Alas, the twentieth century has not been kind to Buddhism: modern governments in mainland China, Tibet, Vietnam, North Korea, Laos and Cambodia have attempted either to destroy the religion altogether or at least put very severe restrictions on the institutional possibilities for practicing it.