Tracing the monastic culture of learning in Tibetan Buddhism: A sociological analysis

Abstract

The essence of India lies in the foundations of reason, free thought and benevolence thus making it the melting pot for development, diversity and democracy. Several studies from the perspectives of Hinduism, Islam and Christianity have trace the uniqueness of relationship that exists between religion and the construction of knowledge. There remains a Sociological vacuum in the epistemology of learning in Buddhist tradition, especially the continuity of the quintessentially Indian culture of learning among the Tibetan monks in exile. The question that is addressed in this paper is how religion can define the culture of learning with reference to a particular ethnic community. The paper charts the metamorphosis of the Monk and Monastery or Maha-Vihara across ages. With in-depth interviews and non-participant observation this ethnography tries to compare learning practices in the Sera Je Monastery and the Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in Karnataka focussing mainly on the use of Paulo Freire's Dialogue, Debate or Dhamcha as an innovative instructional methodology in Monastic Curriculum. This study depicts an intriguing relationship between the contemporary theories and the traditional ways of interpreting education highlighting the diversity in unique and ancient asian cultures emphasising on how Tibetan Buddhist monasteries preserve the original Indian culture in its purest form.