Buddhism in Tibet 1994

In 1994, a great many of the monasteries in Central Tibet, even smaller ones, were being rebuilt. Local disrobed monks, usually with financial aid from geshes and lamas in the West, were doing much of the work, reconstructing the buildings according to old architectural plans. The culture in Amdo was still strong and the people had rebuilt, to a certain extent, and restarted most of the major monasteries. The traditions of architec­ture, painting, sculpt­ing and woodcarv­ing were very much in­tact. The main thing lacking was teach­ers of Bud­dhism. Almost all were kill­ed during the Cultural Revolution, and the older monks left were not well-edu­cated. Mostly only older people and the nomads were using the Tibetan language, while the younger population spoke primarily Chinese. An overview of activities in the major monasteries in both regions showed that they had limited educational capacity.