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Buddhist Monastic Economy: the Jisa Mechanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Robert J. Miller
Robert J. Miller
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

The economic activities of Buddhist monasteries have frequently been noted. In regard to Tibetan Lamaist monasteries some writers have assumed that these activities indicate the “corruption” or “degeneration” of pure Buddhist ideals. On the other hand many have expressed wonder at the generosity with which Lamaist laymen will give, sometimes impoverishing themselves, to support their religion. Attention too seldom has been drawn to the means by which gifts are translated into religious merit for the donors, whether these be monks or laymen. It is the mechanism of translation that explains the universal economic success of Buddhist monasticism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , July 1961 , pp. 427 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1961

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References

1 Field research was conducted jointly with B. D. Miller, supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation Board on Overseas Training and Research, in 1953–55. The research was carried on in the Darjeeling District, West Bengal, India, and in the State of Sikkim. Mongolian material and Tibetan data are derived from summary presentations in such sources as: Miller, Robert J., Monasteries and Culture Change in Inner Mongolia (Wiesbaden, 1959);Google ScholarDas, Sarat Chandra, Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet (London, 1902);Google ScholarTsybikov, G. Th., A Buddhist Pilgrim to the Holy Places of Tibet: Diaries kept from 1899–1902. Translated from the Russian by Shaw, Roger, for the Human Relations Area Files (New Haven, Connecticut, 1952–1953);Google ScholarWaddel, L. A., The Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism (London, 1895).Google Scholar

2 Cf. Jaeschke, H., A Tibetan-English Dictionary (London, 1944).Google Scholar Jaeschke does not give the specific term Jisa (colloquial Tibetan), but offers many words carrying the same meaning. I have taken the specific meanings of sPyi and -sa and combined them, drawing upon the Mongolian usage of the term as noted in Kovalevskii, J. E., Dictionnaire Mongol-Russe-Français (Kazan, 1844).Google Scholar

3 For these formulations and for stimulating criticism of the first draft of this paper I am deeply indebted to George Murphy, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

4 Bareau, A., “Indian and Ancient Chinese Buddhism: Institutions Analogous to the Jisa”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, III, pp. 443–51.Google Scholar

5 Bareau, loc. cit.; Dutt, Nalinaksha, “The Emergence of Mahayana Buddhism”, in The Cultural Heritage of India (Calcutta, 1936).Google Scholar

6 Thomas, Edward J., History of Buddhist Thought (New York, 1933);Google ScholarMiller, Beatrice D., Lamas and Laymen: A Historico-Functional Study of the Secular Integration of Monastery and Community. Ph.D. Dissertation, unpublished (University of Washington, 1958).Google Scholar

7 Bareau, loc. cit., p. 444.

8 More attention is given here to the small monasteries, since the larger ones have been treated in some detail in Miller, R. J., op. cit.

9 This cannot help but remind one of the term used by Bareau: “inexhaustible goods”.

10 The data on Sikkimese monasteries was obtained before we were aware of the Sangha-monastery dichotomy so often noted above. We failed to ask for details of “monastery” funds, assuming that the monastery treasury was a corporate, unitary entity, and that loans were made by actual disbursements from this supposed central treasury.

11 The problem of distinguishing what an author means by “monastery” funds is further exemplified in Snellgrove's recent book: Buddhist Himalaya (New York, 1957).Google Scholar

12 For an expanded treatment of these areas and specific monasteries, see Miller, R. J.. op. cit.

13 Interview, the DiIowa Khutukhtu, Seattle, 1952.

14 Snellgrove, op cit., pp. 280–82.