THL Toolbox > Places & Geography > THL Place Encyclopedia Extensions > Monasteries Database
Contributor(s): Jose Cabezon, David Germano, David Newman, Jann Ronis.
Tibetan culture and politics has been dominated by monastic institutions since the latter half of the eight century until the present.
The present manual offers guidelines for how to document a monastery in Tibet and the Himalayas for publication by THL. Our broader goal is to create documentation of every single monastery and template in the history of the region, whether they currently exist in any form or not. However, for an important monastery, it is possible to create literally hundreds of pages of documentation; for a minor monastery, we may only know its name. Since our first goal is to create at least a name, and hopefully some basic information, on EVERY monastery, we are currently limiting the extent of our coverage of each monastery in order to make this possible. Thus rather than writing essays on monasteries, we are creating discrete pieces of tabular information - name, sect, founding date, etc.
For a general discussion of workflow processes - whether and when to use spreadsheets, word processing documents, online editorial interfaces, or some combination, see Contributing to THL Offline.
The beginning point, for a given time period, or a given region, or give sect, the first step is to make an exhaustive list of monasteries. Then do the following, to the extent you can, for each monasery:
1. Names: ascertain the proper Tibetan spelling, as well as the names in any other relevant language. For the Tibetan, if you understand the etymology, document it and its significance. In this regards, you should review the THL Place Dictionary and its editorial manual, and do your best to fill out those fields.
2. Type: using the THL Feature Thesaurus under "Religious", determine which type of religious institute it is and sectarian affiliation. If these affiliations/types changed over time, you have to indicate time ranges for each.
2. Duration: Ascertain the duration - stop and start time - as precisely as possible for a given polity.
3. Timeline: Create a timeline of major events, especially founding date, destruction date, major renovation date, sect change date.
4. Location: Document its location as you best you can -lat/long, identifying on maps, narrative comments about its boundaries, etc.
5. Sources: Compile a bibliography of relevant primary and secondary resources.
6. Relationships: identify other religious institutions with which the monastery has relationships - branch monasteries, mother monasteries, institutions with which it has/had an e
7. Description: write a one line summary of the monastery, and then a one page overview.
8. Encyclopedia Template: review the Structured Monastery Template given below, which offers a complex template for fully documenting a monastery, and consider filling in some portion of this. In doing so, assess what structured data might be available to you in the sources which would make sense to record - whether or not there is a clear item for it in the instructions/template below.
The following is a list of a standard range of minimum information. Even if this template cannot be fully completed for a given Monastery, there is a core set of data is necessary for the monastery description to be useful. This includes the following. If you cannot fill out some of these items, DON'T WORRY - the only requirement is that you try to specify them if possible.
The most cumbersome thing here is that every single cell needs to have sources specified. If the entire spreadsheet uses only one source, then you don't have to be concerned since you can just specify that is the source of all information in this spreadsheet. If you primarily use one source, but have some other sources at times, then you could make a "source" column and narratively note the exceptions, which they someone will have to change by hand in the Place Dictionary following importation. Otherwise you need to create a source column after every single data column. If you do that, best to use the THL Biblio ID so it can be directly imported into the database; otherwise put a # before the number, and use private numbers which you can later globally search and replace with the correct THL Biblio ID. A related issue is "notes" in case you want to make a narrative note about the data in a given cell. Just locate the "note" after the column in question as a new column, or put in a final NOTE column where a synthetic note is made which can be used as such, or manually parsed after importation into the Place Dictionary proper.
- name: Tibetan, Chinese, alternative names (Tibetan, Chinese, common European spellings). Each language has to be a separate column.
- Tibetan etymology: both syllabic etymology, and if possible, an explanation of how the etymology has been interpreted in relation to the place (i.e. its called “heap of rice” since historically it is said the founder piled rice on the site of the future monastery…”
- feature type: from the controlled vocabulary in the feature thesaurus.
- foundation date: this can be registered as the feature date.
- name(s) of founder(s): separate by commas, if more than one name.
- lat: if possible.
- long: if possible.
- cultural location: contemporary; from the controlled vocabulary of the Place Dictionary. If you have historical cultural locations, you need to keep track of this in a distinct field.
- administrative location: contemporary; from the controlled vocabulary of the Place Dictionary. If you have historical cultural locations, you need to keep track of this in a distinct field. Whatever is the most granular information you have - village, township, county, etc. It may be the spreadsheet is for one county, or one prefecture, which then contextualizes whatever you put there.
- relationships to other features: this can be used to express mother/son monastery relationships.
- sectarian affiliation: sect, start time, end time. This can involve involve several temporal points at which you need to specify sect, date, and source for each. This is better than saying "sect" and then having a "conversion date". You can repeat these - for each specify the sect, and the beginning-end times for each change of sectarian affiliation beginning with the initial one and ending with current one (or last one prior to end of monastery). Hopefully this will only two, otherwise the spreadsheet starts to get cumbersome.
- monastic population: population number, date. Using things like "current monks" makes no sense, since it is out of date as soon as you record it. Instead we just list all temporal points we have, and users can then see which is the most current census.
- major changes (renovation, growth, reduction, destruction): specify the type of change from controlled vocabulary (renovation, etc.) and a date field.
- short historical description: paragraph to a page. This is narrative text.
- current status: paragraph to a page. This is narrative text.
- citations: both giving references to primary or secondary language sources discussing/mentioning the feature, as well as actually typing in the passage (enough to give context) in some contexts.
- bibliographical resources: you may want to just private numbers or THL Bibliographical ids.
Make sure you keep careful track of your sources (དབྱད་གཞིའི་འབྱུང་ཁུངས།), and indicate which is the relevant source for each piece of information included in the entry:
- Interviews (བཅའ་འདྲི།):
- Texts (དཔེ་ཆ།)
- Notebooks: this refers to ethnographic notebooks referred to using your own system of citation for later reference.
Various associated resources for this monastery should be identified and/or entered within the relevant THL repository by Editors. For end users, THL will then go to the relevant THL repository and retrieve those resources georeferenced by the THL ID for this monastery. Resources present within THL should be given separately, and then a comprehensive bibliography of all resources (including those inside and outside of THL) be given under the rubric "Bibliography":
- Essays (རྩོམ་ཡིག་): scholarly essays. For each, Title (མིང་།), Author (རྩོམ་པ་པོ།), Date (བརྩམ་དུས།), Type (རིགས།)
- Texts (དཔེ་ཆ།): this documents textual resources concerned with this religious institution in any language. Similarly, the others are essentially bibliographies of the relevant type of resource as it concerns this institution.
- Maps (ས་བཀྲ།)
- Images (པར།)
- Audio recordings (སྒྲ་ཕབ།)
- Video recordings (བརྙན་ཕབ།)
- Bibliographies (དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་རིགས།): this references bibliographies as such which are concerned with resources of any type related to the institution in question
- Links (དབྱིན་ཁྲེའི་འབྲེལ་ལམ།)
- Glossaries (ཐ་སྙད་དཀའ་གནད་ཅན།)
- THL Projects (གངས་ལྗོངས་དཔེ་མཛོད་ཁང་གི་ལས་རིགས།): This lists out projects in THL that are working on this place.
For each monastery, fill out the information for the standard descriptive feature entry form offered by the Place Dictionary for every type of feature - natural, administrative, religious, etc. For details, see the THL Place Dictionary Editorial Manual.
There are six basic components of a standard place dictionary entry:
- Name: in all variant forms.
- Type: as specified from our feature theasuarus (monastery, hermitage, etc.)
- Summary Description: a page or shorter description.
- Relationships: specification of other places/features to which this one is related in some way.
- Identifiers: any codes or identifers by which this place is referred.
- Location: the latitude/longitude, as well as any narrative notes about the feature’s location.
Al information is given temporal durations for which it is valid. Likewise, all information is sourced so that one knows the sources (bibliographical reference and page number) of the data.
All associated data that is connected to this place - bibliographies, audio-video, images, immersive objects, related texts, etc. – is not entered into the Place Dictionary entry, but rather is automatically collated by virtue of those resources having been cataloged in their respective repositories as being related to this place by means of its THL Feature ID.
The rest of this manual for Monasteries details how to enter more specialized types of information specific to monasteries. This information is grouped into 8 broad categories:
- Types and Affiliations
- Current Status
- Time & History
- Social and Institutional Life
- Things (Material Holdings
Sectarian Affiliation (གྲུབ་མཐའ།): for each (if it changes over time), specify:
- Type (རིགས།): chosen from the Knowledge Map of Relgious Sect.
- Type period (དུས་སྐབས།) start
- Interval name:
Current Residents (གྲྭ་གྲངས།)
- Number of Official residents (ཐེམ་ཐོ་ཡོད་པའི་གྲང་ཀ།): a number field.
- Number of Unofficial residents (ཐེམ་ཐོ་ཡོད་པ’གྲང་ཀ།): a number field.
- Age distribution (ལོ་སྐོར་སྐོར།): narrative note.
- Ethnic distribution (མི་རིགས་སྐོར།): start by specifying if are all Tibetan, or also include other ethnicities; but within Tibetans, also specify why type of Tibetans – Khams pa, etc. Where are they from?
- Gender distribution (ཕོ་མོ་སྐོར།): i.e. 100% male, etc.
- Ordained/Lay distribution (གསེར་སྐྱ་སྐོར།): i.e. 100% celibate clergy, etc.
- Current educational system (རིགས་གནས་་ཆུ་ཚད།): narrative note.
- Educational exchange (སློབ་གསོའི་རྗེ་རས།): narrative note.
The standard Place Dictionary fields record basic location data.
Individual Building or Structure (ཁང་པ་དང་ཕྱི་རྟེན།): for each, name (ཁང་པའི་མིང་།), type (རིགས།) - Building (ཁང་པ།) or Structure (phyi rten/) specify subtype, description. You can enter these into the Place Dictionary with their own records if you are being thorough, and then relate them to the monastery through the “feature relations” function; otherwise if you just have basic data, you may want instead to synthetically describe them here.
General description of physical layout: narrative discussion.
Architectural patterns: narrative discussion.
Sacred sites and pilgrimage routes: eg. a cave where a famous lama meditated, circumambulation routes, etc. Narrative discussion.
Date founded (འེབས་དུས།): this should be a date field with MM, DD, YYYY all separate.
Founder (འདེབས་མཁན།): this person’s name be selected from the THL dictionary.
Date destroyed (ཉམས་ཆགས་དུས།): this should be a date field with MM, DD, YYYY all separate.
Date renovated (ཉམས་གསོའི་དུས།): this should be a date field with MM, DD, YYYY all separate.
Historical overview (ལོ་རྒྱུས་མདོ་བསྡུས།): this is a narrative discussion.
Demographics (གྲྭ་གྲངས།): this is a narrative discussion of the changing population over time.
Timeline: for now a narrative discussion, until such time we can launch a timeline.
- Summary (ནང་དོན་མདོར་བསྡུས།): narrative note.
- Status types (གོ་ས།): choose from the corresponding Knowledge Map “Human Titles” all that apply.
- Specific People (མི།): for each, Name (མིང་།), Type (རིགས།) - specify if was major scholar, renovator, major patron, etc., Description (འགྲེལ་བཤད།). These should link to the Dictionary entries for each.
Gods & Spirits (ལྷ་འདྲེ།)
- Summary (ནང་དོན་མདོར་བསྡུས།): narrative note.
- Specific Gods & Spirits (ལྷ་དང་མི་བྱེ་བྲག): for each, Name (མིང་།), Name etymology (ངེས་ཚིག), Type (རིགས།), Description (འགྲེལ་བཤད།). These should link to the Dictionary entries for each.
Internal Organization (སྒྲིབ་གཞིའི་མིང་།)
- Summary (ནང་དོན་མདོར་བསྡུས།)
- Specific Organization: for each, Name (སྒྲིག་གཞིའི་མིང་།), Type (རིགས།), Description (འགྲེལ་བཤད།) - include information on the dates of the organizational unit. Type should be drawn from the Knowledge Map “Organizational Unit”. Unfortunately, this has some overlap with the Feature Thesaurus, since things like a “grub grwa” or “temple” are feature types; but other things like “bursars” are more abstract units that don’t have a clear geographical footprint.
External Institutional Affiliations (དགོན་པ་དེ་དང་འབྲེལ་ཡོད་དགོན་པ་གཞན་སོགས།)
- Summary of affiliations: include dates
- Educational exchange (སློབ་གསོའི་རྗེ་རས།)
- Individual External Institutional Affiliations: for each, detail, Affiliated institution name (འབྲེལ་ཡོད་དགོན་པའི་མིང་།), Type of relationship (འབྲེལ་བ་གང་འདྲ་ཡིན་པ།), Description (འགྲེལ་བཤད།) - include any information on dates. These institutions should all be entered in the Place Dictionary and choosen from there.
Relations with Local Communities (དགོན་པ་དང་ཡུལ་མི་བར་ཀྱི་འབྲེལ་བ།)
- Summary (ནང་དོན་མདོར་བསྡུས།)
- Number of local villages and nomad units (གྲོང་ཚོ་བམ་འབྲོག་ར་ག་ཚོད་ཡོད་མེད།)
- Economic occupation of local population (ཡུལ་མིའི་ལས་རིགས།): Indicate proportions of each occupation.
Ritual Life (སྒྲུབ་ཆའི་སྐོར།)
- Daily rituals (ཉིན་རེའི་ཆོ་ག): all such rituals are discussed together. If relevant, these ritual names should be entered in the Dictionary, and possibly the Encyclopedia. Use the Knowledge Maps “Tibetan Rituals” as relevant for the type.
- Monthly rituals (ཟླ་རེའི་མཛད་སྒོ།): all such rituals are discussed together.
- Annual Rituals (ལོ་རེའི་དུས་སྟོན།): for each, Name (མིང་།), Date (ཚེས་གྲངས།), Description (འགྲེལ་བཤད།) - include details of event commemorated, date founded, etc.
- Irregular rituals (དུས་མིན་གྱི་ཆོ་ག)
- Retreat traditions (མཚམས་དམ་པའི་རྒྱུན་སྲོལ།)
Education ( སློབ་ཁྲིད་སྐོར།)
- Text books (སློབ་དེབ།): this specifies the text books used within the institution for study.
- Curriculum (སློབ་ཁྲིད་གོ་རིམ།): this specifies the system for study, such as a nine year sequential stages of study and so forth.
- Degrees granted (རིག་གནས་ཆུས་ཚད་མཚོན་པའི་གོ་འབབ།): this specifies the religious degrees granted within the institution, if any. Use Knowledge Map for “Human Titles > Religious Titles”, as well as narrative discussion.
- Administrative positions (འཛིན་སྐྱོངས་བྱེད་མཁན།): this details the administrative positions within the institution.
- Non-administrative positions (འཛིན་སྐྱོངས་གི་གོ་གནས་མེད་མཁན།): this details the non- administrative positions within the institution.
- Summary (ནང་དོན་མདོར་བསྡུས།): includes overview of patronage (སྐོར་པའམ་སྦྱིན་བདག)
- Income (ཡོང་འབབ།)
- Expenses (འགྲོ་སོང་།)
- Woodblock holdings (པར་ཤིང་།)
- Library holdings (དཔེ་མཛོད་ཁང་།) Printed texts (པར་མ།)
- Library holdings (དཔེ་མཛོད་ཁང་།) Manuscripts (བྲིས་མ།)
Art and other Sacred Materials Objects (ནང་རྟེན།)
- Summary (ནང་དོན་མདོར་བསྡུས།): one can discuss these in summary.
- Individual items: for each, Name (མིང་།), Type (རིགས།), and Description (འགྲེལ་བཤད།)
Utilitarian Artifacts (མཁོས་རིགས་དངོས་མཛད།)
- Summary (ནང་དོན་མདོར་བསྡུས།): one can discuss these in summary, and/or discuss individual items. Presumably, unlike the art category, this would chiefly discuss classes of such objects rather than individual examples. Thus one might discuss a type of cooking implement, rather than one famous spoon!
- Individual items: for each, Name (མིང་།), Type (རིགས།), Description (འགྲེལ་བཤད།). For type, use Knowledge Map “Material Objects”.
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