Bibliography
Bell, Charles. A Portrait of the Dalai Lama: The Life and Times
of the Great Thirteenth.London: Collins, 1946.
Bstan ’dzin rgya mtsho (Dalai Lama XIV). My Land and My
People.New York: McGraw Hill, 1962.
Goldstein, Melvyn. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913–1951:
Demise of the Lamaist State.Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1989.
Samphel, Thubten, and Tendar. The Dalai Lamas of Tibet.New
Delhi: Lustre Press, 2000.
GARETHSPARHAMDANA (GIVING)
It is difficult to overstate the centrality of generosity
and gift giving (dana) in Buddhism. Danais a supreme
virtue perfected by BODHISATTVAS, a key practice of
providing economic support to monks and nuns and
the Buddhist establishment, and a means of generat-
ing religious merit.
Danais first in the lists of the PARAMITA(PERFEC-
TION) that a bodhisattva cultivates through the many
eons of lives that culminate in buddhahood. Giving in
this context is not only an instance of renunciation
of material possessions, it also illustrates the bodhi-
sattva’s infinite compassion and regard for others in
need. One of the best-known stories in the Buddhist
world is the tale of Siddhartha Gautama’s penultimate
life in which he completes the final perfection of gen-
erosity as the bodhisattva Vessantara (Sanskrit, VIS ́-
VANTARA). Vessantara’s extraordinary perfection is the
gift of his children and wife to a greedy brahman, a gift
so magnificent that it causes the earth to quake. Other
celebrated acts of the bodhisattva’s generosity include
occasions described in the JATAKAliterature in which
he offers up his limbs, his eyes, and even his life to
those in hunger or in need.
In addition to being a moral ideal of a bodhisattva,
danais also a practice with considerable social and eco-
nomic significance in Buddhist cultures. Basic to the
Indian traditions in which Buddhism first developed
is the distinction between householder and renouncer.
Dana,a term broadly employed in South Asian reli-
gions, should be understood within the context of the
relationship of complete economic dependency of
monks and nuns on royal gifts and the alms of lay
householders. The LAITYgive food and other requisites
to monks and nuns through daily ritualized alms
rounds or through the making of offerings at monas-
teries. Although monks and nuns are not expected to
reciprocate these gifts, they can offer the gift of the
Teaching (dharmadana), which is often exalted as the
highest gift.Laypeople are motivated to give danain part be-
cause it provides them with religious merit. Dana,
when given joyfully and graciously, generates karmic
merit that results in worldly benefits in this life, as well
as a fortunate rebirth in the next life. Important fac-
tors determining the merit one earns by making a gift
are the motivations of the donor, the propriety and
suitability of the gift, and the worthiness of the recip-
ient. The logic of this last variable ensures that laypeo-
ple will want to give to the worthiest “field of merit,”
ideally a learned and pious monk, to earn the most
merit from the gift. While some traditions within Bud-
dhism, particularly within the MAHAYANA, extol giving
without discrimination to the poor and needy, there is
in danaideology a general preference for ensuring sup-
port for esteemed monks and nuns.While texts on lay morality stress the generosity of
the laity, donative inscriptions across the Buddhist
world record gifts given by pious monks and nuns, as
well laypeople, to building and supporting Buddhist
institutions. Gifts of kings, such as those of King AS ́OKA
(third century B.C.E.), of almshouses and monasteries
to Buddhist communities, record the importance of
royal patronage in the establishment, development,
and preservation of Buddhism.See also:Ethics; Merit and Merit-MakingBibliography
Cone, Margaret, and Gombrich, Richard F., trans. The Perfect
Generosity of Prince Vessantara: A Buddhist Epic.Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1977.
Endo, Toshiichi. Dana: The Development of Its Concept and Prac-
tice.Colombo, Sri Lanka: Gunasena, 1987.
Schopen, Gregory. Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected
Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic
Buddhism in India.Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1997.
Sizemore, Russell, F., and Swearer, Donald K., eds. Ethics,
Wealth, and Salvation: A Study in Buddhist Social Ethics.Co-
lumbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1990.MARIAHEIMDANA(GIVING)