# Monastery

Source: https://buddhisma2z.com/monastery/  
Author: Bhante S. Dhammika, *Guide To Buddhism A To Z*  
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

A monastery (*ārāma*, *āvāsa* or *vihāra*) is a place where [**monks**](https://buddhisma2z.com/monks/) or [**nuns**](https://buddhisma2z.com/nuns/) reside. A place where nuns live is correctly called a nunnery in English although this distinction is not made in [**Pāḷi**](https://buddhisma2z.com/pali/). The first Buddhist monasteries/nunneries were little more than grass huts or shelters erected in forests and [**gardens**](https://buddhisma2z.com/gardens/) which had been donated to the Buddha. They could be of five types — a house, a hut, a rounded hut, an elongated hut, a cottage or a [**cave**](https://buddhisma2z.com/caves/) (Vin.V,146). The first Buddhist monastery, the Bamboo Grove in [**Rājagaha**](https://buddhisma2z.com/rajagaha/), was a gift from King Bimbisāra. In time, the simple buildings developed into permanent structures and finally into sometimes very large complexes. One of the largest monasteries in ancient India was [**Nāḷandā**](https://buddhisma2z.com/nalanda/), which in the 7th century accommodated 10,000 monks. One of the largest monasteries in the world today is Mahagandoyan near Mandalay in Burma, which has a permanent population of about 3,000 monks. Most monasteries, however, are and always have been, fairly small. For centuries monasteries/nunneries have acted as the religious, cultural, educational and economic centres of the community around them.

In Sri Lanka a monastery is called  a *pansala* from the Pāḷi  meaning ‘leaf hut’,  the Thai and Cambodian word *wat* comes from the Pāḷi *vāṭa* meaning an enclosed place, while the common Burmese name for a monastery is *kyaung*.  The Tibetan word for a monastery is *gompa*.

**Further reading:** The Buddhist Monastery, A Cross-cultural Study, ed by Pierre Pichard and Francois Lagirarde, 2003.

Subjects: Monastic Life