The Mother of All Monasteries: Gönlung Jampa Ling and the Rise of Mega Monasteries in Northeastern Tibet Copyright 2013 Brenton Thomas Sullivan Stilwell, Kansas M.A., University of Virginia, 2013 M.A., University of Kansas, 2007 B.A., University of Notre Dame, 2003 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Religious Studies University of Virginia August, 2013 The Mother of All Monasteries: Gönlung Jampa Ling and the Rise of Mega Monasteries in Northeastern Tibet Brenton Thomas Sullivan Qing-period painting of Gönlung. Photo is from the “Huzhu Government Study” (see below). ii Abstract “Mass monasticism,” defined as “an emphasis on recruiting and sustaining very large numbers of celibate monks for their entire lives,” has been called one of “Tibet’s unique contribution[s] to humanity and the world” (Goldstein 1998 and 2009). The number of monks residing in some of the largest institutions swelled into the thousands, making them the largest monasteries in the world. Nonetheless, to date there has been no study that accounts for the origin and development of these monasteries. The current study begins to address this lacuna in our knowledge by looking at the largest monastery in seventeenth- century Northeastern Tibet (or Amdo), Gönlung Jampa Ling (dgon lung byams pa gling). Although Gönlung Monastery was not as early as some of the more famous institutions found in Central Tibet, it did house the first Geluk sect seminary in Northeastern Tibet, an essential feature of most mass or “mega monasteries.” The monastery also boasted a rich and regimented liturgical calendar, a strict and consistent system of governance and discipline, an extensive network of local patrons and subsidiary and allied monasteries, and, finally, political and economic connections with both the Dalai Lama’s government in Lhasa and the newly established Qing Dynasty in Beijing. Gönlung’s size and influence waned beginning in the mid-eighteenth century after it was implicated in a major Mongol rebellion and the monastery was subsumed within the Qing empire’s system of regulating the Buddhist clergy. Nonetheless, it paved the way for the political and religious rise of the Geluk sect in Inner Asia and for the establishment of other mega monasteries. This work’s argument is twofold. First, the history of the rise of these sizeable and complex institutions is more complicated than what others have previously suggested. That is, their origin can be placed before the reign of the renowned and influential “Great Fifth” Dalai Lama, and their development took place apart from his direct influence. Second, and more importantly, these monasteries were characterized by much more than the mere agglomeration of a massive number of monks: the strategic institutionalization of all monastic enterprises--scholastic, ritual, administrative-- and the development of local and regional monastic networks defined mega monasteries. iii Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................ viii Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Mass Monasticism ............................................................................................................................ 5 Gönlung Jampa Ling, the Mother of All Monasteries (north of the Huang River) ................. 15 The “White Hidden Land” ........................................................................................................... 20 The Founding ............................................................................................................................... 23 Population .................................................................................................................................... 24 Famous Lamas and Little Lamas ................................................................................................. 27 Branches ...................................................................................................................................... 33 Branches: Gönlung’s Own ........................................................................................................... 37 Chapter Summaries ...................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 1: A Chronological Overview ............................................................................... 45 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 45 Narratives of Continuity and Destruction ................................................................................... 45 Early History .................................................................................................................................. 59 Early History: Protector Deities ................................................................................................... 67 Early History: Tusi ...................................................................................................................... 70 Early History: Collection Leaders, Domestic Watchmen, and ‘Encampments’ .......................... 72 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 80 Chapter 2: The Connections of the Monastery, Southbound ........................................... 85 Patrons ............................................................................................................................................ 87 iv Forgotten Histories ........................................................................................................................ 91 Dewa Chöjé, the “Governor Dharma King” ............................................................................... 93 Flight to Amdo: The Lokeśvara Statue ........................................................................................ 95 Relations with Mongols ................................................................................................................. 98 A Fellow Clergyman .................................................................................................................... 101 Güüshi Khan ................................................................................................................................. 103 Back at Gönlung ........................................................................................................................... 110 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 114 Chapter 3: The Connections of the Monastery, Part II: Eastbound .............................. 116 Changkya's Intellectual Pedigree and Connections with Central Tibet ................................. 119 Changkya and the Mongols ......................................................................................................... 126 Changkya and the Mongols: The Khüren-Belcheer Conference of 1686 .................................. 130 Changkya and the Mongols: Chaghan Tologhai Conference of 1697 ....................................... 133 Building and Wielding Imperial Influence ................................................................................ 139 Changkya the Administrator and Local Dignitary ................................................................... 145 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 148 Chapter Appendix I: A Timeline of Changkya's Life ............................................................... 150 Chapter Appendix II: Sources .................................................................................................... 151 Chapter 4: The Administration of the Monastery: One for All, and All for One……. 154 Sources .......................................................................................................................................... 156 Finances: The Triumvirate of Lama, General Managment, and Patrons .............................. 165 The Lama Villa, or the Abbatial Villa (bla brang; khri pa bla brang) ...................................... 165 The General Management Office (spyi sa/so/ba) ...................................................................... 177 Lay Patrons (sbyin bdag) ........................................................................................................... 187 The Discipline of Monkhood ....................................................................................................... 192 v Socialization .............................................................................................................................. 192 Membership ............................................................................................................................... 194 Attendance 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