Discipline and Debate: The Language of Violence in a Tibetan Buddhist MonasteryThe Dalai Lama has represented Buddhism as a religion of non-violence, compassion, and world peace, but this does not reflect how monks learn their vocation. This book shows how monasteries use harsh methods to make monks of men, and how this tradition is changing as modernist reformers—like the Dalai Lama—adopt liberal and democratic ideals, such as natural rights and individual autonomy. In the first in-depth account of disciplinary practices at a Tibetan monastery in India, Michael Lempert looks closely at everyday education rites—from debate to reprimand and corporal punishment. His analysis explores how the idioms of violence inscribed in these socialization rites help produce educated, moral persons but in ways that trouble Tibetans who aspire to modernity. Bringing the study of language and social interaction to our understanding of Buddhism for the first time, Lempert shows and why liberal ideals are being acted out by monks in India, offering a provocative alternative view of liberalism as a globalizing discourse. |
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argumentation autonomy betan blind faith bsam bshad Buddhist debate Buddhist Dialectics Buxa byas Bylakuppe byung challenger chen po Chögyel clitic corporal punishment critical critical rationality cultural curriculum Dalai Lama dang debate-based debate's defendant defendant's demeanor derelict monk Dharamsala diasporic disciplinarian discourse doctrine Drepung exile Ganden gcig Geluk monastic seats Geluk sect Geshe Geshe-la glossed gnas grwa gsar Gyatso Habermas human rights India Institute of Buddhist Jey and Mey Lama's Lhasa liberal subject Lobsang Gyatso ma yin mkhan modern mtshan Namgyal Monastery nang Nyingma pa'i philosophical phyir practices public reprimand reason reform regional house reincarnate lamas religion religious rgyas rgyu role rtsod semiotic Sera Mey Sera Mey's Sera Monastery Sera's skyabs slob speech suggest sympathy Tashi taunts teachers textbook textual Tibet Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan refugees tion topic tradition tsho Tsongkhapa yog red zhig