Tibetan Buddist Temple Economy

Historically, Tibetan Buddhist Temples make their revenue mainly from the primary distribution and redistribution of national revenue. Unlike the Tibetan local government and the Tibetan secular aristocracy that was influcned by the Tibetan Buddhist cosmology, the Tibetan Buddhist Temples make their revenue through a flexible form of offerings. In the contemporary era, Tibetan Buddhist Temples such as the Ganden Yangcan Phuntshogling Monastery in Deqen County, Yunnan Province, make their income completely from the redistribution of national revenue, showing a relatively more intense and deep religious complex and belief foundation. The support of the monastery is directly related to the daily life, cultural environment, religious structure of the local society, as well as reflecting the evolution of Tibetan social structure. The article concludes with an analysis on the consumption and livelihood of monks in Ganden Yangcan Phuntshogling Monastery which are the significant components of the temple economy. As temples are not disengagement from the society, the consumption and the livelihood of monks shows the difference of stratum which proves that there were some implications and interactions between the sacred and the secular on religious aspect.Religion was regarded as the shadow of the social value, it has affected the whole society with its real functions.