The Monastery Rules discusses the position of the monasteries in pre-1950s Tibetan Buddhist societies and how that position was informed by the far-reaching relationship of monastic Buddhism with Tibetan society, economy, law, and culture. Jansen focuses her study on monastic guidelines, or bca yig. The first study of its kind to examine the genre in detail, the book contains an exploration of its parallels in other Buddhist cultures, its connection to the Vinaya, and its value as socio-historical source-material. The guidelines are witness to certain socio-economic changes, while also containing rules that aim to change the monastery in order to preserve it. Jansen argues that the monastic institutions influence on society was maintained not merely due to prevailing power-relations, but also because of certain deep-rooted Buddhist beliefs.

The Monastery Rules: Buddhist Monastic Organization in Pre-Modern Tibet, Berthe Jansen, University of California Press, Paperback, 298 pages, $39.95

BERTHE JANSEN is a Buddhist scholar, mother of two daughters, and Dutch translator for the Dalai Lama. She lived for over ten years in Dharamsala, India, where she learned Tibetan fluently. She has degrees in Buddhist Studies from Oxford and Leiden University and has published a book on Tibetan monastic communities. She also regularly translates for lamas at Buddhist centers and translates classic Buddhist texts. She is assistant professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Leipzig and is currently based in Amsterdam.