The

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...

education system facilitates basic educational needs of the Asian Buddhist countries before the contemporary era. Learning traditions can be traced back to

ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

where learning began with educated monastics, teaching younger monks and the lay people. The monastic instruction was based on Buddhist value system and emphasized that learning was an end in itself, one that is "worth a strenuous pursuit to possess for its own sake" and that "teaching was for ends that were above mere gain".

System

The education system that emerged, particularly from 320 BCE to 500 CE, featured an open framework where learning was free for all including non-Buddhists. The monks used their temples to teach and since these were not enough to address the educational needs of the entire country, learning centers were also built in connection with the monasteries. There were also

convents A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican C ...

and

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

offering opportunities for learning and self-culture that catered to women since they were also seen as equal to men, supplementing their work in the spread of their faith. Monastic education in other countries was heavily influenced by the Indian tradition such as the case of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

where the ''sutra sannayas'' was heavily used in preaching, serving as one of the foundations of the Lankan monastic education. The formal monastic education introduced in

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

in 1621 was also patterned after the ancient Indian system. These developments show an absence of a standardized monastic education system although there were initiatives that sought to establish a curriculum such as those by the Saranamkara and his students, which stressed the importance of

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

and composition. Nowadays, countries like

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

, and

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

still practice Buddhist monastic education to fill the gap in the government education system. There are cases, however, when large Buddhist education centers were nationalized within governmental efforts to expand higher education facilities. Some scholars criticized this, citing the destruction of traditional Buddhist education and the politicization of Buddhist monkhood.

References

Buddhist monasticism Religion and education {{Education-stub

System

See also

References