Ritual Practice and Monastic Education at the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies in Ladakh

“A monk should study philosophy, not just chant all day.” This statement, echoed by many monks at the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (CIBS) in Ladakh, reflects a growing tension in contemporary monastic life. Becoming a monk is no longer just about mastering rituals or preserving tradition—it now involves pursuing higher education, engaging with global Buddhist discourse, and even considering career paths beyond the monastery. Drawing on interviews and conversations with Buddhist monks, this paper asks: What does it mean to be an educated monk today? It examines how monks at CIBS navigate the dual demands of ritual expertise and scholastic training, balancing local monastic obligations with global opportunities. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and surveys, it explores how monastic education in Ladakh integrates hands-on ritual training, traditional Buddhist study, and modern secular subjects.
CIBS was founded in 1959, amid the Tibetan diaspora and growing uncertainty around monastic education in the region. Established under the guidance of Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, with support from the Government of India. Unlike Ladakh’s traditional system, where younger monks trained informally under senior monastics, CIBS introduced a formal curriculum combining classical Buddhist texts, Tibetan grammar, and Indian epistemology (pramāṇa) with modern subjects like English, history, and political science.
CIBS reflects broader shifts in Tibetan Buddhist education following the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s exile and the reestablishment of major monastic universities in India. With many Ladakhi monks unable to study at these institutions, CIBS became a key alternative, offering advanced Buddhist education while maintaining ties to home monasteries. Its curriculum, shaped by global interest in Tibetan Buddhism, prioritizes philosophy, logic, and “Buddhist mind sciences”, reinforcing the prestige of scholastic study over ritual training and creating tensions over what it means to be an educated monk.
My paper first examines the growing emphasis on Buddhist scholasticism as the marker of an educated monk. Many monks I interviewed aspire for mastery in philosophy, textual study, and debate, often citing the Dalai Lama and other figures who stress the Nalanda Tradition. This shift prioritizes Buddhist “mind sciences” and textual analysis over ritual practice. For many, philosophical training offers mobility, creating opportunities to connect with international Buddhist audiences and foreign sponsors through teaching and publishing.
At the same time, ritual practice is often seen as mechanical and unstimulating. As one monk put it, “I find rituals very boring—just long, monotonous hours of chanting.” Such views reflect the growing stigma around ritual expertise, increasingly regarded as the domain of monks lacking the academic aptitude or resources for higher studies. Some monks actively distance themselves from ritual, focusing instead on textual training or pursuing education beyond Ladakh..
After highlighting the pressures monks face to prioritize scholastic study, I turn to the continued necessity of ritual practice in their daily lives and communities. While many prefer the philosophical classroom, they remain deeply engaged in vernacular ritual landscapes, where their expertise is essential. CIBS monks, in particular, continue to work as ritual specialists, performing Dharma protector invocations (bskang gsol), funerary rites, agriculture rituals, and monastic dances, which hold religious, social, and economic significance. As one monk explained, “If we don’t perform certain rituals on time, local spirits get angry and take revenge.” This underscores the vital role of monks as intermediaries, maintaining relationships with spirit beings, ensuring social well-being, and reinforcing monastic authority.
Outside the classroom, CIBS monks refine tactile ritual skills, crafting consecrated objects like offering cakes (gtorma), thread crosses (mdos), and protective talismans. While essential to monastic education, this knowledge is increasingly marginalized in formal scholastic settings. This section examines the evolving intersections of material culture and monastic learning.
This paper explores how CIBS monks navigate the tension between scholastic study and ritual training, revealing monastic education as a dialogical process. For global audiences, monastic legitimacy is tied to philosophical mastery, while for local communities, it is demonstrated through ritual proficiency. Monks must shift between these expectations, adapting their roles depending on the audience. Some integrate both traditions, recognizing ritual and scholasticism not as opposing forces, but as interdependent aspects of monastic learning. This perspective reframes ritual not as mechanical labor, but as an embodied pedagogy, fostering ethical discipline, artistic skill, and social engagement.
By centering monks' lived experiences, this paper challenges the binary between ritual practice and Buddhist philosophy, showing monastic education in Ladakh as a dynamic negotiation of overlapping expertise. At CIBS, monks do not simply choose between scholarship and ritual but learn to navigate both, adapting their training to meet the needs of local and global interlocutors. To be a fully trained monk in Ladakh is to exist in dialogue—between textual study and embodied practice, philosophical inquiry and ritual performance, global Buddhist discourse and vernacular religious traditions. This case study argues that Buddhist education in Ladakh is shaped by the interplay of ritual landscapes and transnational Buddhist networks.
Through engaging with the voices and experiences of diverse monks at CIBS, this paper highlights how monastic education in Ladakh is shaped by an ongoing negotiation between ritual practice, scholastic training, and global Buddhist discourse. Rather than choosing between being ritual specialists or scholars, monks learn to navigate multiple expectations, adapting their roles across local and transnational contexts. This raises broader questions about global monasticism and vernacular landscapes: How is Buddhist monastic culture evolving in response to modern education? How do monks negotiate the tension between local traditions and global Buddhist networks? What does it mean to be a monk in contemporary contexts shaped by both transnational influences and vernacular religious landscapes?