Greco-Buddhist monasticism
The role of Greek Buddhist monks in the development of the Buddhist faith under the patronage of Emperor Ashoka around 260 BCE and subsequently during the reign of the Indo-Greek king Menander is described in the Mahavamsa, an important non-canonical Theravada Buddhist historical text compiled in Sri Lanka in the 6th century in the Pali language.
Conjectural restoration of the Takht-i-Bahi stupa.
According to the Mahavamsa, the Great Stupa in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, was dedicated by a 30,000-strong "Yona" (Greeks) delegation from "Alasandra" around 130 BCE.
Buddhist monasticism is one of the earliest surviving forms of organized monasticism and one of the fundamental institutions of Buddhism. Monks and nuns, called bhikkhu and bhikkhuni, are responsible for the preservation and dissemination of the Buddha's teaching and the guidance of Buddhist lay people. Three surviving traditions of monastic discipline (Vinaya), govern modern monastic life in different regional traditions: Theravada, Dharmaguptaka, and Mulasarvastivada.
Monks outside the temple at the Tibetan Buddhist monastery, Rato Dratsang, in India, January 2015.
At the peak of its power, Japan's Enryaku-ji was a huge complex of as many as 3,000 sub-temples and a powerful army of warrior monks (僧兵, sōhei).
Young Buddhist monks in Tibet practising formal debating
A Buddhist monk in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, wearing the robes of an abbot in a monastery
