Tsa Yig

The Tsa Yig (Classical Tibetan: བཅའ་ཡིག་, Wylie: bca' yig) is any monastic constitution[1] or code of moral discipline based on codified Tibetan Buddhist precepts.[2][3] Every Tibetan monastery and convent had its own Tsa Yig,[4] and the variation in Tsa Yig content shows a degree of autonomy and internal democracy.[5]

In Bhutan, the Tsa Yig Chenmo (Dzongkha: བཅའ་ཡིག་ཆེན་མོ་; Wylie: bca' yig chen-mo; "constitution, code of law"[6]) refers to the legal code enacted by founder Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal around 1629.[7] Before the Shabdrung enacted the Tsa Yig as the national legal code, he had established the code as the law of Ralung and Cheri Monasteries by 1620.[8] The code described the spiritual and civil regime and provided laws for government administration and for social and moral conduct. The duties and virtues inherent in the Buddhist religious law (dharma) played a large role in the legal code, which remained in force until the 1960s.[9]

  1. ^ Epstein, Lawrence (1990). Reflections on Tibetan Culture: Essays in Memory of Turrell V. Wylie. E. Mellen Press. pp. 205–214. ISBN 0-88946-064-7. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  2. ^ Central Asiatic Journal. Vol. 43–44. O. Harrassowitz. 1999. pp. 288–289. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  3. ^ Epstein, Lawrence (1990). Reflections on Tibetan Culture: Essays in Memory of Turrell V. Wylie. Studies in Asian Thought and Religion. E. Mellen Press. pp. 205 et seq. ISBN 0-88946-064-7. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  4. ^ Gutschow, Kim (2004). Being a Buddhist Nun: the Struggle for Enlightenment in the Himalayas. Harvard University Press. pp. 63, 191. ISBN 0-674-01287-9. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
  5. ^ Samuel, Geoffrey (2005). Revisionings: New Understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian Religion. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 293. ISBN 81-208-2752-X. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
  6. ^ "Tibetan-English-Dictionary of Buddhist Teaching & Practice". Diamond Way Buddhism Worldwide. Rangjung Yeshe Translations & Publications. 1996. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
  7. ^ Bowman, John Stewart, ed. (2000). "Chapter XVIII – Bhutan". Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. Columbia University Press. p. 385. ISBN 0-231-11004-9. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  8. ^ Aris, Michael V. (1979). "Life of the Zhabs-Drung – Meditations and Travels". Bhutan – The Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom. Warminster, England: Aris & Phillips Ltd. p. 215. ISBN 0-85668-082-6. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  9. ^ Worden, Robert L. (1991). "Chapter 6 – Bhutan: Theocratic Government, 1616–1907: Consolidation and Defeat of Tibetan Invasions, 1616–51". In Savada, Andrea Matles (ed.). Nepal and Bhutan: Country Studies (3rd ed.). Federal Research Division, United States Library of Congress. ISBN 0-8444-0777-1. Retrieved 19 October 2010.