MONASTERY BUILDINGS & PROPERTY

CHAPTER SEVEN

Monastery Buildings & Property

Monasteries

One of the earliest allowances in the Buddha’s teaching career was for accepting the donation of a monastery. The context of the allowance suggests that the monastery should be donated to the entire Saṅgha, rather than to individual Communities or bhikkhus. This point is supported by the passage from DN 2, cited in the preceding chapter, which states that a virtuous bhikkhu does not accept fields and property. However, none of the texts discuss this point in detail.

There is an allowance in Mv.VI.15.2 for monastery attendants: lay people whose job is to look after the affairs of the monastery. In feudal and pre-feudal days, these attendants would be given to a monastery by a king or other feudal lord. The origin story to the allowance suggests that in some cases the gift would encompass the inhabitants of an entire village. The tax revenues and corvée labor from the village, instead of going to the secular authorities, would go to the monastery. Again, the Pali Canon and commentaries do not discuss this arrangement in any detail. This is in sharp contrast to the Vinayas of some of the other early schools, such as the Mūlasarvāstivādins, who went to great lengths to prohibit non-Buddhist kings from later rescinding such arrangements. This point argues for the relative lateness of these rules in the other Vinayas: The Buddha was not so foolish as to try to legislate for kings.

The Canon does, however, give a detailed discussion of the buildings allowed in a monastery and of the proper use and distribution of monastic property. In some cases, the distribution of monastic property is handed over to officials chosen by the Community. As this choice involves a Community transaction, all issues related to the responsibilities of Community officials will be discussed in Chapter 18. Here we will discuss monastic buildings and the issues concerning monastic property for which Community officials are not responsible.

Buildings

In addition to dwellings, the monastery may include an uposatha hall (for the chanting of the Pāṭimokkha), an assembly hall (according to the Commentary, this covers halls for holding meetings or for eating meals), a drinking water hall or pavilion, a fire hall (apparently used for boiling water, dyeing robes, etc.), a storehouse, a food storage place, walking meditation paths, a well, a sauna, a hall or pavilion for the kaṭhina frame, bathing and restroom facilities, and surrounding enclosures. (The hall (sāla) in each of these cases is apparently a roofed building without walls; the pavilion (maṇḍapa) is also an open building, but smaller.) The construction details allowed for these buildings resemble those allowed for dwellings. Anyone interested may check the rules at the end of this chapter. Here we will discuss details peculiar to some of these buildings.

Uposatha hall & storehouse

No construction details are given for these buildings. The only rules related to them concern communal transactions, so they will be discussed in Chapters 15 and 18.

Food storage place (kappiya-kuṭi)

This is a space designated within the monastic compound where food may be stored and yet not count as “stored indoors” under Mv.VI.17.3. The Canon allows for a building on the perimeter of the monastery to be designated as a food storage place, but the Commentary maintains that the building may be located anywhere in the monastery.

The Canon lists, without explanation, four types of allowable food storage places. The Commentary quotes a variety of opinions on their precise definitions, which indicates that no one by that time was absolutely sure of what they were. To summarize its discussion:

Walking meditation paths

Walking meditation paths may be made either by leveling the ground or by building a path on a foundation of brick, stone, or wood. In the latter case, a stairway may be built up to the path, with a railing allowed both for the stairway and surrounding the path. The path may be roofed, the roof may be plastered and decorated with the four allowable designs, and there may be a cord or a pole for hanging up one’s robes.

Wells

Wells may be lined with bricks, stones, or wood, and covered with a roofed hall. Other allowable well equipment includes a rope for drawing water, a well-sweep (a long stick on a pivot with a counter-weight at one end, to help pull a water bucket up from the well), a pulley, a water-wheel, three kinds of buckets—made of metal, wood, or strips of hide—a lid for the well, and a trough or pot/basin for keeping water.

Saunas

In addition to the usual construction details, saunas may be faced (as in Pc 19) and may be built with a projecting gable (on all sides, says the Sub-commentary). A fireplace is to be built to one side in a small sauna, and in the middle of a large one. It may be provided with a chimney. One may smear one’s face with clay as protection against being scorched by the fire; if the clay smells foul, one is allowed to cure it (with perfumed substances, says the Commentary). To protect one’s body from being scorched, one may bring in water. A tank is allowed for storing it, and a dipper is allowed as well. To keep the floor from getting muddy, the sauna may be floored with bricks, stones, or wood. There is also an allowance for washing the floor and providing a water drain. In response to an incident where bhikkhus sitting on the floor of the sauna found their limbs growing numb, there is an allowance for using a chair in the sauna.

Bathing facilities

Separate places for showering and bathing are allowed. The showering place (udaka-candanika) may be enclosed and floored with any of three kinds of material—brick, stone, or wood—and provided with a water drain. A bathing tank may be lined with any of the same sorts of materials and, if necessary, built up high off the ground.

Restroom facilities

Separate places are allowed for urinating, defecating, and rinsing oneself with water after defecating. The urinal in use at the Buddha’s time consisted of a pot with footrests on either side. The restroom (outhouse) for defecating was built over a cesspool lined with brick, stones, or wood. The cesspool had a cover with a hole in the middle and footrests on either side. (The cover was allowed after bhikkhus “defecating as they sat on the edge (of the cesspool) fell in.”) In both cases, the Commentary says, the footrests could be made of brick/tile, stone, or wood. A lid was allowed for the cesspool opening, as was a urine trough. The construction details allowed for the restroom built over the cesspool are similar to those for a dwelling. A sling was also allowed so that old or sick bhikkhus could pull themselves up from the squatting position after defecating. Wood sticks were used for wiping—a receptacle was allowed for placing used sticks—and the job was finished by rinsing with water. A separate place was set aside for rinsing, with its own lidded water pot, ladle, and footrests. Further details concerning the etiquette in using the restroom facilities may be found in Chapter 9.

Enclosures

Three kinds of enclosures are allowed. Because there is a separate allowance for fences around dwellings, this list is apparently meant for the enclosures around the monastery as a whole: a hedge of bamboo, a hedge of thorns, and a moat. None of the texts explain why the three materials allowed for fences around a dwelling—bricks, stones, or wood—are not mentioned here as well. Two possible explanations come to mind: Perhaps bricks, stones, and wood were considered too expensive in the time of the Buddha for such a large enclosure; or perhaps the allowance for fences was meant to apply here as well. Since the medieval period, Communities have apparently assumed the second explanation, as there is evidence for brick enclosures around monastic ruins dating from that time, and brick and concrete block enclosures are still common around monasteries in Theravāda countries today.

The enclosure may have a roofed gatehouse, and the entrance may be provided with a gate of thorns and brambles, a double door, an archway, and a bar connected to a pulley. To keep the area within the enclosure from getting muddy, it may be strewn with gravel, laid with flagstones, and provided with a water drain.

Monastery property

If the Community is given fancy items of value—examples mentioned in the Canon include costly woolen blankets and costly woven cloths—they may be traded “for something profitable.” This, the Commentary says, means that they may be traded for allowable objects of equal or higher value. (However, the trade should be arranged in a way that does not violate the etiquette of kappiya vohāra as stipulated under NP 20.) If the Community receives bear hide, rags, and similar items that cannot be made into robes, they may be made into foot-wiping mats. (The allowance for bear hide here is unusual; it is apparently the only hide that can be used in this way, and there is no telling why.) Cloth that can be made into robes, when given to the Community, falls under the aegis of the Community official responsible for accepting, keeping, and distributing cloth (see Chapter 18).

Furnishings given for use in a particular dwelling are not to be moved elsewhere. However, they may be borrowed temporarily and also moved “to protect them” (e.g., if the roof of the dwelling in which they are located starts to leak). The Commentary adds here that if, when taking them to protect them, one uses them as Community property and they wear out with normal use, there is no need to make reimbursement. When the original dwelling is repaired and able to protect furnishings, one should return them if they are in shape to return. If one has used them as one’s own personal property and they wear out, one must reimburse the Community. The Commentary’s notion of reimbursement, however, comes under the idea of bhaṇḍhadeyya, which—as we saw under Pr 2—has no basis in the Canon.

This arrangement—of giving furniture and other “lodging” items specifically for use in a particular dwelling—is the closest reference in the Canon to an arrangement that looms large in the Commentary and in the Vinayas of the other early schools: a dwelling given by a donor who continues to take a proprietary interest in the dwelling, its furnishings, and its inhabitants. This practice may have grown out of the arrangement mentioned in Sg 7, in which a donor sponsors the construction of a dwelling, but aside from the above rule the Canon does not recognize it.

Apparently, one of the possible duties for monastery attendants was to farm for the monastery. Thus there is a ruling in the Canon that when seed of the Community has been planted in the land of an individual, or if the seed of an individual has been planted in the land of the Community, it may be consumed by the bhikkhus after having given the individual a portion.

The Canon lists five classes of Community belongings that cannot be given out to any individual or divided up among the bhikkhus, even by a Community transaction or through the agency of a Community official. Any bhikkhu who does give out or divide up these belongings incurs a thullaccaya—and even then the belongings do not count as given out or divided up. They are still the property of the Community. The five classes are:

The Commentary has a fair amount to say about these items. The site of a monastery it interprets as land intended for a monastery or the site of an abandoned monastery; it gives a similar definition for the site of a dwelling. Under the fourth category, it says that knife means large knives (such as machetes) and large shears; chisel/drill means those with handles, while other metal tools of carpenters, lathe-workers, jewelers, and leather-workers would also come under this sub-category. However, small metal vessels of the sort designed to be carried on one’s person are all right to distribute.

Under the fifth category, it interprets vines as those at least a half-arm’s length. Vines, grass, and reeds that have already been used and are left over from construction work are all right to distribute. The word bamboo is meant to cover bamboo to be used for construction. Small bamboo items such as canes, small oil containers, or umbrella parts are all right to distribute. Buddhaghosa reports a disagreement between the Kurundī and the Mahā Aṭṭhakathā on what is included under wooden goods here. According to the Kurundī, this sub-category includes all leather goods and any wooden goods larger than an 8” needle. According to the Mahā Aṭṭhakathā, it includes all furniture and wooden articles (although furniture would seem to come under category (3)), with the exception of a water flask—whether made of real wood, bamboo, goat leather, or leaves. Allowable leather goods (such as sandals) are not included here. Also not included are: unfinished furniture parts, canes/staffs, shoes, fire-generating sticks, filters, water jugs/flasks, small horn flasks, ointment boxes, and buttons. As for clay goods, the Commentary says that this sub-category covers dishes, pottery, bricks, tiles, chimney tiles, and water or drain pipes. Alms bowls and small clay vessels of the sort designed to be carried on one’s person are not included here, and so are all right to distribute.

Reasoning from the Great Standards, we can say that all construction materials donated to the Community would come under category (5).

For purposes of generalization, the Commentary divides these five categories into two major classes:

Although none of the items in either of these two classes may be given away, they may be exchanged for other items in the same class. Thus, a dwelling may be exchanged for the site of a monastery. Taking a loss in the trade is permissible if a good reason justifies it (although this would seem to contradict the Commentary’s own interpretation of Cv.VI.19). If the trade will turn a profit for the Community, the bhikkhus making the trade must point this out to the other side. If the other side still wants to go ahead with the trade, fine and good. It is also permissible to trade one expensive item for a larger number of inexpensive items in the same class; and to trade items inappropriate for the bhikkhus’ use—such as goods made of gold, silver, gold alloys, or crystal—for appropriate items.

The Sub-commentary gives permission to exchange garubhaṇḍa for thāvara-vatthu.

The Commentary adds that during a famine, the bhikkhus in a monastery may sell off garubhaṇḍa for food, so that enough bhikkhus will be able to stay there to look after the remaining property, but there is nothing in the Canon to support this.

Cetiya property

The Commentary to Pr 2 makes a clear distinction between belongings of the Community and belongings given to a cetiya. Under no circumstances should items given to a cetiya—this includes stūpas and Buddha images—be treated as Community property.

Rules