DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2019-001 Language Use and Maintenance in the Monastic Setting A Sociolinguistic Study of the Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries of Kathmandu Brad L. Chamberlain Language Use and Maintenance in the Monastic Setting A Sociolinguistic Study of the Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries of Kathmandu Brad L. Chamberlain SIL International® 2019 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2019-001, March 2019 © 2019 SIL International® All rights reserved Data and materials collected by researchers in an era before documentation of permission was standardized may be included in this publication. SIL makes diligent efforts to identify and acknowledge sources and to obtain appropriate permissions wherever possible, acting in good faith and on the best information available at the time of publication. Abstract Many Himalayan language varieties have had only little linguistic and sociolinguistic research. This study explores whether, and to what extent, monastic communities living in and around Kathmandu can provide suitable language consultants for linguistic research, in light of the remoteness and political constraints that complicate research in these minority language communities. More specifically, this study had three major research objectives. The first was to identify what language groups are present in Kathmandu’s monasteries and to identify different variables that could be used as criteria for targeting specific communities for more in-depth research on language use and maintenance. The second objective was to explore language use patterns among the monastic students in Kathmandu’s monasteries, and how these patterns impact their proficiency in the various languages at their disposal. The third objective was to assess the levels of language maintenance as well as the types of language shift which occur as monks spend extended time in the monasteries. This report was written in 2002 but was not published until now. In total, 73 individuals from twelve different monasteries were interviewed. They come from Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan, originating from twenty-five different linguistic backgrounds. The tools applied include individual questionnaires, lexical comparisons, as well as fluency and comprehension testing. The results of the study can be summarized as follows: 1. Factors that encourage language maintenance: For students who leave their home areas to live in the monasteries of Kathmandu, a number of factors have been identified that can lead to language maintenance of the mother-tongue. Overall, the findings show that there is a correlation between language maintenance and the opportunities for language use. 2. Factors which may affect ability as a language assistant: The findings indicate that the ideal language consultants are monks who joined the monastic system quite recently, and at an older age. Moreover, monks who show high levels of pride in their speech variety and the culture of their home area are more likely to be still highly proficient in their heritage languages varieties. 3. Limitations of linguistic data obtained from a monastery: The findings show that—even when active ability is affected—passive ability in the mother tongue is not greatly affected. Therefore, it is quite likely that monks can serve as translators from the mother tongue to another language, and can also assess the purity level of a text, regardless of the time away from their home areas. They may not, however, be able to provide accurate regional dialect information. Furthermore, monks who have become quite educated within the monastic system become decreasingly representative of the general population from their home areas. Therefore, in the context of linguistic research in a specific region, such monks are less than ideal consultants. Moreover, only few monks have enough free time to participate regularly in any sort of linguistic research. Contents Abbreviations Preface 1 Purpose of the study 1.1 Description of study 1.2 Some foundational definitions 1.3 Language maintenance and its role in cultural preservation 1.4 Application for the linguistic researcher 1.5 Application for the Tibetan-Buddhist communities 1.6 Broader applications 2 Background 2.1 Tibetan Buddhist language communities of South Asia 2.2 Main concentrations of monasteries in Kathmandu 2.2.1 Boudha 2.2.2 Swayambhu 2.2.3 Pharping 3 Demographic survey of Kathmandu’s monasteries 3.1 Design of the study 3.1.1 Purpose 3.1.2 Basic research questions 3.1.3 Tools used 3.2 Monastery locations and resident profiles 3.2.1 Locations of the monasteries studied 3.2.2 Home areas of Kathmandu’s monks 3.2.3 Home areas of the Rinpoches of Kathmandu’s monasteries 3.3 Categorization of Kathmandu’s monasteries 3.3.1 Homogeneous or heterogeneous monk body 3.3.2 Population size of the monasteries 3.3.3 Functional focus 3.3.4 Categorization of functional foci of the monasteries 3.3.4 Chronology of construction 3.4 Factors which may influence language use and maintenance 4 Language use study 4.1 Design of the study 4.1.1 Purpose 4.1.2 Basic research questions 4.1.3 Tools used 4.2 Discussion of sample 4.2.1 Ages of subjects 4.2.2 Mother tongue of subjects 4.2.3 Nationality of subjects 4.2.4 Monastic environment 4.3 Interaction with people from the home area 4.3.1 Interactions with people who still live in the home area 4.3.2 Interactions with people from home area living in Kathmandu 4.3.3 Summary of home-interaction data iii iv 4.4 Language ability 4.4.1 Languages spoken 4.4.2 Assessment of language maintenance 4.4.3 Assessment of mother-tongue ability 4.4.4 Assessment of Tibetan ability 4.4.5 Assessment of Nepali ability 4.4.6 Assessment of English ability 4.4.7 Summary of language ability data 4.5 Language use 4.5.1 Language use with people from the home area 4.5.2 Language use with people from Tibet 4.5.3 Language use with people from Nepal 4.5.4 Language use for monastic purposes 4.5.5 Summary of language use results 4.6 Summary of language use study 4.6.1 General patterns 4.6.2 Answers to research questions 5 Language maintenance study 5.1 Design of the study 5.1.1 Purpose 5.1.2 Research questions 5.1.3 Tools used 5.1.4 Design and subject selection 5.2 Description of the languages in this study 5.3 Evaluation of lexical data 5.3.1 Manangi data 5.3.2 Tingri Tibetan data 5.3.3 Khengkha data 5.3.4 Summary of trends in lexical data 5.4 Evaluation of text data 5.4.1 Manangi data 5.4.2 Tingri data 5.4.3 Khengkha data 5.4.4 Summary of text data 5.5 Summary of language maintenance study 5.5.1 Lack of purity correlating with length of time in the monastic system 5.5.2 Lack of recall correlating with opportunities for language use 5.5.3 Little loss of comprehension 5.5.4 Little loss of awareness of what is pure 6 Summary and results 6.1 Factors that encourage language maintenance 6.1.1 Ease of travel to the home area. 6.1.2 Existence of a lay population from the home area near the monastery 6.1.3 Monastery population linguistic make-up 6.1.4 Monastery size 6.1.5 Languages of instruction and discussion 6.1.6 Living situation 6.2 Factors which may affect ability as a language assistant 6.2.1 Number of years living away from the home area 6.2.2 Attitudes towards the mother tongue v 6.3 Limitations of linguistic data obtained from a monastery 6.3.1 Types of language shift likely 6.3.2 Attitude issues towards Tibetan and the mother tongue 6.3.3 Time and schedule constraints 6.4 Summary statement Appendix A: Monastery Data Appendix B: Profiles of Some of Kathmandu’s Rinpoches Appendix C: Tibetan Buddhist Sects Found in Kathmandu Appendix D: Monasteries Housing Particular Language Groups Appendix E: Answers to Language Use Questionnaire Appendix F: Wordlist Data References Abbreviations < less than # number % percent Com. community Environ. environment FPMT Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition H.E. His Eminence Hetero. heterogeneous H.H. His Holiness Homo. homogeneous HP Himachal Pradesh CNAS Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies Lg./lgs. language, languages Med. meditation retreat (map 6) Mon. monastery MT mother tongue N north NE northeast NW northwest OK okay (reasonably well) Opp. opportunities PO Post Office SW southwest Tib. Tibetan W west vi Preface This sociolinguistic study of Kathmandu’s monasteries is meant to aid linguistic research in the Tibetan Buddhist world. This work will provide useful information about: 1) monasteries as a sociolinguistic setting, 2) Kathmandu as an access point to many different Tibetan Buddhist language groups, 3) issues that affect language maintenance among these populations. I am sure there are faults with this study. I confess my ignorance about things Tibetan and things Buddhist—the research has been a learning process for me. Since my own ability in Tibetan is limited, the research was conducted in Nepali or English, with Tibetan translation help when needed. There are possible errors in transcription of monastery and Rinpoche names, but I hope that the transcriptions will prove adequate. I am very thankful for the kind help of Dr. Novel K. Rai of CNAS, and for his sponsorship of this project. I am also thankful to the numerous Lamas who met with me over the past year—for their kind reception and ready help. I hope that these Lamas will see fruit from this research. Particularly, I hope that the research will help with the maintenance and development of their languages and cultures.