The Influence of Monsoon Season on Buddhist Monasticism

Buddhism was founded in India rooted in an environment and culture in which the monsoon season was a major part of life. This season impacted the life of the Buddha and his teaching career affecting the formation of Buddhism as a missionary religion. Over time Buddhism was adopted in other areas of South and Southeast Asia that had an annual rainy season; it was also adopted across Central and East Asia and elsewhere without such a season, yet aspects of monastic life that were influenced by the rainy season persisted or took on new forms in different cultural contexts. This research seeks to provide a concise understanding of the ways in which the historical and cultural context of the rainy season affected the formation of Buddhism and the early years of monasticism, and describe similarities and differences from this origin in religious life, rituals, ceremonies, and practices where Buddhism spread outside of India. In describing this complex impact across different times and places of the Buddhist world I utilize the Pali Scriptures as primary sources and the earliest relevant to this research, historical research documenting the formation and growth of the religion, and anthropological research on Buddhist communities to create a historical chronicle of Buddhist monasticism as originally affected by the cyclical monsoon