Renqingduojie

This dissertation project explores the success of Rongwo Monastery (f. 1630) in a three-tiered competitive environment: the internal network of Geluk monasteries, the inter-school context, and the secular political arena. Placing Rongwo Monastery as a center in the multi-layered grid of power helps us rethink and go beyond the narrow focus of earlier scholarship on singular relationships between large Buddhist monasteries and the Qing court. This study argues that local relationships and contestation between allied monasteries, rival traditions, and between religious and secular governing institutions are more important for the growth of mass monasticism in Tibet.