On various aspects of Bonpo monks in comtemporary society

岩尾一史・池田巧編京都大学人文科学研究所共同研究報告This paper clarifies the historical and current situation of Bonpo monastic community, dealing mainly with the monks' way of living. While the ascetic community with discipline has developed at some huge monasteries such as Menri monastery in Tsang, life of each Bonpo practitioner cannot be simply grasped as supermundane one. In this paper, based on anthropological field research in Shar-khog region (Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous area, Sichuan Province) since 2006 and analysis of influential lamas' biography, the diversity of their living and its significance for the management of monastic community and lay society is discussed. First, the way of monk's living before 1950s is examined by analyzing biography of abbots of skyang tshang monastery. Their lives reveal that they frequently pass between monastic and lay society for managing their community, while connecting with trans-regional network of Tibetans. Also, monastic discipline come down from central Tibet gradually replaced tantric practitioner in this area. Therefore, most of Bon practitioners were considered to be living as celibate monks in 1950s in skyang tshang. This situation deeply influenced the lives of monks after revival of religious practice in 1980s. Primarily, what determines their life is the monastic discipline; therefore, elder monks who were once forced to quit monastic life during the cultural revolution still often express regret for their "not being good monks". On the other hand, lives of younger monks show considerable varieties. They are not always celibate figures but important agents who interact with lay society in order to sustain the monastic community. Thus such way of living as Bonpo monks has been inherited, adjusting the socio-economic changes around the area