Reconstructing Religious Capital in Exile: The Tibetan Influence on Monastic Education of Buddhists from Ladakh, India

This paper explores the Tibetan influence in monastic education of Ladakhi Buddhists in India. The reconstructed Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in India post the Tibetan exodus in 1959 serve as training grounds for thousands of monastics from Ladakh. The fieldwork for this qualitative research study was conducted in Leh, Ladakh, and the Tibetan settlement of Mungod in Karnataka. On the basis of interview guides, interview schedules, focus group discussions and non-participant observation, this paper argues that the religious capital of Tibetan Buddhism has had an integral role in shaping the spiritual education and life worlds of the Buddhist monastics of Ladakh.