292 CHAPTER ELEVENprofessional level for which there are few parallels in other Buddhist cultures.
Professional Tantrists come in a wide variety of forms-celibate monks and
nuns, noncelibate lay practitioners, and solitary hermits-but here we will
focus on the ritualism in a typical moderate-size monastery to provide an idea
of how Tantric ritual has been domesticated into a socially accepted form for
the acquisition of spiritual power and its application to a wide variety of ends.
The monastery-a Kagyu provincial center influenced by the Ri-med move-
ment and located in eastern Tibet-is no longer functioning, but its survivors
have transported its practices to northern India and continue to maintain hope
that they will someday be allowed to return and rebuild what they have lost.
The monastery was located in a valley surrounded by low, grassy hills. A
large walled compound, it contained two main temples where group rituals
were held, workshops for the creation of ritual implements, and row houses
capable of housing three hundred monks. Farther up the hill was a hermitage
where the monks were expected, at least once in their lives, to go on a retreat
lasting for three years, three months, and three days. In permanent residence
at the hermitage were 13 yogins, termed vidyiidharas, who spent their entire
lives following the example of Milarepa. If one of them died, one of the ordi-
nary monks who showed the proper talent was assigned to replace him so as
to keep the number constant.
Because families in the area were expected to donate a set number of their
young sons to become monks-a so-called "monk tax" -to keep the mona-
stery's population at a viable number, not all of the monks exhibited a reli-
gious avocation. The practical running of the monastery, however, offered
plenty of activities for those who were less religiously inclined. The monastery
needed craftsmen !O provide a steady output of ritual implements, and secu-
rity guards to protect it from bandits and thieves. Almost all the monks kept
their own dairy cattle, tended gardens, and were expected to provide and pre-
pare their own meals. Aside from maintaining celibacy, they led lives little
touched by the Mulasarvastivadin rules they studied. Their support came from
their families and from fees for their performance of rituals for the local laity.
Generally free to come and go, they were subject to the rule of the abbot only
if they happened to take him as their Tantric master. The temple as a whole,
in ad9-ition to receiving donations from wealthy donors, sponsored trading
ventures and caravans to supplement its income.
As one observer has noted, Tibetan Tantrism is a performing art, and the
life of the monks was devoted to becoming skilled performers. This involved
learning not only the techniques of the art, but also the proper altruistic moti-
vation for performing it. A society believing firmly in the reality of ritual
power could not wisely support its practice by anyone who did not have the
proper motivation. Young monks, in addition to taking minor roles in the
morning and afternoon group rituals, devoted their time to learning the basics
of classic Tibetan. At the age of 20, they began their education in the colleges
associated with the temple. Unlike the great Gelug universities in Lhasa, the
course here took only 8 to 10 years, although it covered the same five basic