• གནས།
  • gnas
  • āvāsa
  • Term
Publications: 1
  • site
  • གནས།
  • gnas
  • āvāsa
Definition in this text:

A “site” is an area for monastic residence demarcated from surrounding land by a boundary (Tib. mtshams; Skt. sīmā), which is adopted in an official act of the saṅgha who are to reside there. The act along with the different natural and adopted boundaries used to mark the perimeter of a monastic residential site are described in The Chapter on the Restoration Rite. Once a site has been demarcated, other formal acts of saṅgha (such as the rites of restoration, lifting restrictions, and pledging to settle for the rains) may be performed there. Thus, an officially sanctioned monastic “site” is also described as an “allowable place” (Tib. rung ba’i gnas; Skt. kalpikaśālā) in The Chapter on Medicines (Toh 1, ch. 6, 10.14 ff). In secondary scholarship, the Sanskrit āvāsa or “site” has also been translated as “monastic district” and “colony.”