The Buddhist Monastery

What is a Buddhist monastery? We might define it as a long-term residence of monastic, whether monks or nuns. But even such a deceptively comprehensive and consistent definition fails to cover the whole Buddhist world. There are ritual centres considered as monastery where no monk reside, for instance in the Newar community of Nepal, where married Buddhist followers, having received temporary ordination as young boys, live around, but not inside, their monastery, and are collectively in charge of its maintenance, rituals and activities. And it is clear that in all periods and in all countries, the scale of the monastery has varied considerably, from many hectares to a single building, from several hundred monks sharing the great monasteries of China and Japan or the royal monasteries of Bangkok, to the single caretaker monk in some Bhutanese or Singhalese village monasteries.