Tibetan Sacred Space Research Guide: Monasteries, Temples, and Catalogs
Monasticism - General
Encyclopedia of Monasticism by Call Number: click title for e-bookISBN: 1579580904Publication Date: 2013 (first published in 2000)
The Highest Poverty by
What is a rule, if it appears to become confused with life? And what is a human life, if, in every one of its gestures, of its words, and of its silences, it cannot be distinguished from the rule? It is to these questions that Agamben's new book turns by means of an impassioned reading of the fascinating and massive phenomenon of Western monasticism from Pachomius to St. Francis. The book reconstructs in detail the life of the monks with their obsessive attention to temporal articulation and to the Rule, to ascetic techniques and to liturgy. But Agamben's thesis is that the true novelty of monasticism lies not in the confusion between life and norm, but in the discovery of a new dimension, in which "life" as such, perhaps for the first time, is affirmed in its autonomy, and in which the claim of the "highest poverty" and "use" challenges the law in ways that we must still grapple with today. How can we think a form-of-life, that is, a human life released from the grip of law, and a use of bodies and of the world that never becomes an appropriation? How can we think life as something not subject to ownership but only for common use?
Call Number: click link for e-bookISBN: 9780804784054Publication Date: 2013
- The Buddhist Monastery : a cross-cultural survey byISBN: 9782855396262Publication Date: 2003Comparative survey of the Buddhist monastery throughout Asia, including field surveys, historical aspects and the compilation of bibliographies. Particularly relevant:
-The monasteries in Dolpo, North-West Nepal. From the Monastery to the Village Temple: a historical perspective / Corneille Jest
-Dzongs and Gompas in Bhutan / Karma Wangchuk
-Buddhist monasteries in Tibet / Françoise Pommaret
-The physical Buddhist monastery in China / Isabelle Charleux and Vincent Goossaert
-Buddhist monasteries in Southern Mongolia (China) / Isabelle Charleux 
Buddhist Monasticism in East Asia : places of practice by Publication Date: 2009On the religious, social, cultural, artistic, and political functions of Buddhist monasteries in medieval China and Japan. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, this volume explores the multiplicity of the institutions that make up "the Buddhist monastery", covering key issues such as the relationship between monastics and lay society, the meaning of monastic vows, how specific institutions functioned, and the differences between urban and regional monasteries. The book demonstrates that medieval monasteries in East Asia were much more than residences for monks who, cut off from society and all its entrapments, pursued an ideal cenobitic lifestyle.
Central Tibet
Zhongguo Xizang si miao = Monasteries in China's Tibet. In Chinese and English.
Kadampa sites of Phempo : a guide to some early Buddhist monasteries in central Tibet. Includes early primary source material in English translation.
Catalogs of liturgical depository objects of four renown monasteries: (In Tibetan only.)
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Sku mkhar chen po Yum-bu-bla-sgang gi dkar chag ʾbring po...
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Nang-wūth[?] Gtsug-lag Khang che moʾi dkar chag bzhugs so
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Zhwa Lha-khang gi dkar chag bzhugs so
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ʾPhrul-snang Gtsug-lag-khang gi nang mjal drug gi dkar chag mkhas paʾi ngag sgron bzhugs so
Chölung
Chos-lung Monastery. In Tibetan and Chinese.
Densatil
Olaf Czaja. Golden Visions of Densatil: A Tibetan Buddhist Monastery. NY: Asia Society Museum. 17-56.
Drepung
“Drepung Monastery” on the Tibetan & Himalayan Library: http://www.thlib.org/places/monasteries/drepung/ (accessed Aug. 8, 2013).
Dpal-ldan-ʾbras-spungs dgon pa = Drepung Monastery = Zhaibung Si. Beijing : Zhongguo min zu she ying yi shu chu ban she, 1999. In Tibetan, Chinese, and English.
Drigung Tel
ʾBri-gung Thel-dgon gyi lo rgyus rags bsdus = History of ʾBri-gung Thel-dgon monastery of Bkaʾ-brgyud-pa sect in Lhasa, Tibet. In Tibetan and Chinese.
ʾBri-gung dur khrod rten ʾphyag chen moʾi lo rgyus gnad bsdus = 直孔天葬台简介. History of the Tibetan Buddhist ʾBri-gung cremation ground, located northeast of Lhasa (Tibet Autonomous Region); also called ʾBri-gung Thel-dgon gyi dur khrod.* funerary sites as sacred places?
Dzingchi
Venturi, Federica (trans). 2002. Guide to the Rdzing phyi monasterẏ. Roma: Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente.
Ganden
Gdan sa chen po Dgaʼ-ldan-rnam-par-rgyal-baʼi-gling gi gnas yig mdor bsdus zhes bya ba bzhugs so = 甘丹寺简志 . Bilinguial guidebook to Dgaʼ-ldan-rnam-par-rgyal-baʼi-gling (Ganden Monastery; Tib. Dgaʼ ldan Dgon), an important seat of the Gelukpa School of Tibetan Buddhism, located in Stag-rtse County (Ch. Dazi), Lhasa District, Tibet Autonomous Region. 205 pages, plates, color illustrations, portraits. In Tibetan and Chinese.
Mindroling
Brief introduction to the Mindroling monastery = ʼOg-min Oyn Smin-grol-gling dgon gyi ngo sprod rags bsdus = 宁玛祖庭敏珠林寺 / editor, Abbot Xixa, Damchu Tenzin. 36 pages. Illustrated guide to Mindroling, a Tibetan Buddhist Nyingma monastery in Cental Tibet, and some of its religious objects. In Tibetan, Chinese and English
Nechung
Gnas-chung Dgon = Nechung Monastery. History of Gnas-chung Rdo-rje-sgra-dbyangs-gling in Lhasa, Tibet and it's catalog. In Tibetan and Chinese. *contemporary source
Reting
Iuchi, Maho. An early text on the history of Rwa sgreng Monastery : the Rgyal ba'i dben gnas Rwa sgreng gi bshad pa nyi ma'i'od zer of 'Brom Shes rab me lce. Cambridge, MA : Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard Unversity, 2016. Traditional account of Reting Monastery, with analysis. In English, translated from Tibetan.
Sera
“Sera Monastery” on the Tibetan & Himalayan Library: http://www.thlib.org/places/monasteries/sera/ (accessed Aug. 8, 2013).
Yangri Gar
ʾBri-gung Bkaʾ-brgyud kyi chos sde che mo Yang-ri sgar dgon Thub-bstan-sde-bzhi-rab-rgyas-gling gi dkar chag mdor bsdus dgeʾo = 羊日岗寺简介 = History of Yang-ri monastery. Catalog of Yangri Gar, a Drigung Kagyu monastery located northeast of Lhasa (Tibet Autonomous Region) in Meldro Gungkar. In Tibetan and Chinese.
Temples in Central Tibet
Temples of Lhasa: Tibetan Buddhist Architecture from the 7th to the 21st Centuries (Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2005),
Tsepön W.D.Shakabpa’s Catalogue and Guide to the Central Temple of Lhasa (1982). By a 20th century Tibetan writer. In Tibetan.
Gyurme Dorje (trans). Jokhang: Tibet’s Most Sacred Buddhist Temple. In Jokhang, ed. Gyurme Dorje, Tashi Tsering, Heather Stoddard, and André Alexander. London: Edition Hansjörg Mayer, 2010.
André Alexander, “Lhasa Tsukla-khang: An Indian Vihara in Tibet,” chap. 1 in The Temples of Lhasa: Tibetan Buddhist Architecture from the 7th to the 21st Centuries (Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2005), 27-45. (see abovle)
Warner, Cameron David. “Re/Crowning the Jowo S´Ākyamuni: Texts, Photographs, and Memories.” History of Religions, vol. 51, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1–30.
Ngag-dbang-blo-bzang-rgya-mtsho. "Description of Lhasa cathedral," Journal, Asiatic society of Bengal, vol. lxiv, part 1, no. 3, 1895." Description of the Jokhang Temple by the 5th Dalai Lama, translated by L.A. Waddell. In English.
https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/4915683 -- must be viewed onsite at Burke Library
OR: https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/9220199 -- links to e-version of Journal
OR: https://www-biodiversitylibrary-org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/bibliography/51678#/summary
Thundering falcon : an inquiry into the history and cult of Khra-'brug, Tibet's first Buddhist temple / Per K. Sørensen and Guntram Hazod, in cooperation with Tsering Gyalbo. Wien : Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2005. In English.
Western Tibet
Phur
Tropper, Kurt. Inscription in the 'Du khang of Dgung 'phur monastery, Spu rang (Mnga' ris). Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, [2016] Includes translation of primary source for monastery in western Tibet. In English, translated from Tibetan.
Tabo
Klimburg-Salter, Deborah. Tabo: A Lamp for the Kingdom. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
For other studies on Tabo Monastery, see CLIO.
Temples in Western Tibet
L. Petech and C. Luczanits (eds). Inscriptions from the Tabo Main Temple: Texts and Translations.
Eastern Tibet
The monasteries of Amdo : a comprehensive guide to the monasteries of the Amdo Region of Tibet
Kumbum
塔尔寺 = Sku-ʼbum Byams-pa-gliṅ = Taer Lamasery Illustrated guide to Kumbum Monastery, which is associated with the Gelukpa School of Tibetan Buddhism and situated in Huangzhong Xian, Qinghai Province; includes descriptions of each institute (grwa-tshang), the residences of associated reincarnate lamas, etc.137 pages. Published 1984. In Chinese, English, Tibetan.
Labrang
Nietupski, Paul. Labrang Monastery: A Tibetan Buddhist Community on the Inner Asian. Secondary study of Labrang Tashikyil Monastery in Gansu Province, with some references to primary sources. e-book; print edition.
Yangdon Dhondup,Ulrich Pagel and Geoffrey Samuel, eds. Monastic and lay traditions in north-eastern Tibet. Leiden : Brill, 2013.
Temples in Eastern Tibet
Karl Debreczeny. "Imperial interest made manifest: Sga A gnyan dam pa's Mahakala Protector Chapel of the Tre shod Mandala Plain," In Trails of the Tibetan Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling, ed. by Roberto Vitali. Dharamsala: Amnye Machen Institute, 2014, p. 129-166.
Mongolia
Isabelle Charleux, "Buddhist monasteries in Southern Mongolia (China)." In The Buddhist monastery : a cross-cultural survey. Études thématiques ; 12. Paris : École française d'extrême-orient, 2003.
China
Charleux, Isabelle and Goosaert, Vincent. "The Physical Buddhist Monastery in China." In The Buddhist monastery : a cross-cultural survey. Études thématiques ; 12. Paris : École française d'extrême-orient, 2003: pages 305-350.
Holmes, Welch. The practice of Chinese Buddhism. Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1967. (draws extensively on Prip-Moller, see below)
Prip-Møller, J. (Johannes). Chinese Buddhist Monasteries: Chinese Buddhist monasteries : their plan and its function as a setting for Buddhist monastic life Copenhagen : G. E. C. Gad; London : Oxford University Press, 1937.