the later spread of buddhism in tibet 359
veneration, precious offerings and performances of austerities, for the
purpose of receiving the “teacher initiation” (from him). [.. .]
Since it is strictly forbidden in the dibuddhamahtantra, the “secret initia-
tion” and the “wisdom initiation” must not be taken by celibate practi-
tioners. If somebody, who is established in celibate asceticism, takes these
(two) initiations, he would break the vow of asceticism, since he would
turn to actions forbidden (for him).^39The opposition of the two normative codes of monasticism and tant-
rism remained a problem for Tibetan Buddhism throughout its history.
A literary genre, the so-called “Three Vow-literature” (sdom-pa-gsum),
emerged from the thirteenth century onwards written by authors, who
tried to regulate the application of these and other religious norms in a
highly elaborated systematic way.^40 Solutions similar to Atia’s became
a standard pragmatic way to cope with the problem of tantra-practicing
monks for different school traditions. It seems that, apart from the
bKa’-gdams-pa, other Tibetan schools—since they were more closely
connected to the Indian tradition of wandering tantric yogins—did not
put much emphasis on formal monastic discipline during the rst period
after their foundations. By that time, however, the fully ordained celi-
bate practitioner became one of the most important types of religious
specialists within all these traditions. According to D. Snellgrove this
development can be best explained as an effect of the great in uence
of the normative standards established by Atia and his immediate
followers.^41
Normative concepts like the recommendation and regulation of a
monastic life are, of course, mainly theoretical, even if they were laid
down in highly revered religious texts. Social reality can be a completely
different matter. But just like the rhetorical cliché of “false tantras”,
lamentations and polemics against an alleged general moral decline
of Tibetan monasticism is often found in the Buddhist literature of
Tibet. We hear of tantric sexual rites that were carried out by monks
ignoring their vows of celibacy, or of a general recession of people
who decide to take these vows in the rst place. Also Tsong-kha-pa’s
(1357–1419) “reformation” of the bKa’-gdams-pa seems to have been
mainly motivated by his intended return to Atia’s principle of a bal-
anced correlation of monastic and tantric practice that he deemed to
(^39) Bodhipathapradpa (ed. Eimer 1978), pp. 247–264; my translation.
(^40) For a comparative study of this genre, see Sobisch 2002.
(^41) Snellgrove 1987, p. 493.