Teacher-Student Relationship in Tibetan Monastic Tradition and Its Relations with Modern Tibetan College Education System

This thesis summarizes and describes Tibetan teacher-student relationships (T-S) (bshes gnyen bsten tshul) in the monastic tradition from both textual materials and my fieldwork research conducted in 2015 in Gsang sgrog Monastery, Qinghai Province. Also included are the results of a questionnaire survey on college T-S relationships at Teachers Nationalities College (Qinghai Normal University) and T-S relationships in Rongbo Monastery in Qinghai. By comparing T-S relationship of the monastic tradition and the university system, the paper aims to clarify what is a T-S relationship in the context of monastic tradition and its ideological differences with the college education system. The T-S relationship in monastic tradition is a subject-object united model whereas the Tibetan college T-S represents a subject-object dichotomy model. In Tibetan monasteries, the preservation and development of humanistic properties such as high moral standards, ethics, values, and ideas are significantly fruitful. In college, in contrast, the ultimate goal is not for a common good or humanistic purpose. The T-S relations in the monastic tradition depict both teachers and students sharing common goals, reaching conformity through the practices of how a monastic student relates to his teacher (the word bsten ‘relate to’ thus means eliminating distances and differences) that the teachers and students are united in a common goal and share a highly unified group culture. Unlike in the monastic tradition, teachers and students in universities represent different cultures and the college education system emphasizes on textual knowledge accompanied by various exams, and treats students more like objects and products. The internal or moral participation of students and their relations with their teachers are ignored. The purpose of education directs them to external wellbeing such as acquiring more wealth and fame, getting employment, and being in higher social classes. Humanistic properties thus are lacking in the modern, state-sponsored Tibetan college education system. Thus, T-S relationships in Tibetan colleges lack harmony and characterized by collisions and differences that indicate a chasm between the teachers and students.This thesis summarizes and describes Tibetan teacher-student relationships (T-S) (bshes gnyen bsten tshul) in the monastic tradition from both textual materials and my fieldwork research conducted in 2015 in Gsang sgrog Monastery, Qinghai Province. Also included are the results of a questionnaire survey on college T-S relationships at Teachers Nationalities College (Qinghai Normal University) and T-S relationships in Rongbo Monastery in Qinghai. By comparing T-S relationship of the monastic tradition and the university system, the paper aims to clarify what is a T-S relationship in the context of monastic tradition and its ideological differences with the college education system. The T-S relationship in monastic tradition is a subject-object united model whereas the Tibetan college T-S represents a subject-object dichotomy model. In Tibetan monasteries, the preservation and development of humanistic properties such as high moral standards, ethics, values, and ideas are significantly fruitful. In college, in contrast, the ultimate goal is not for a common good or humanistic purpose. The T-S relations in the monastic tradition depict both teachers and students sharing common goals, reaching conformity through the practices of how a monastic student relates to his teacher (the word bsten ‘relate to’ thus means eliminating distances and differences) that the teachers and students are united in a common goal and share a highly unified group culture. Unlike in the monastic tradition, teachers and students in universities represent different cultures and the college education system emphasizes on textual knowledge accompanied by various exams, and treats students more like objects and products. The internal or moral participation of students and their relations with their teachers are ignored. The purpose of education directs them to external wellbeing such as acquiring more wealth and fame, getting employment, and being in higher social classes. Humanistic properties thus are lacking in the modern, state-sponsored Tibetan college education system. Thus, T-S relationships in Tibetan colleges lack harmony and characterized by collisions and differences that indicate a chasm between the teachers and students