<P> The life within the walls of a monastery may be supported in several ways: by manufacturing and selling goods, often agricultural products, by donations or alms, by rental or investment incomes, and by funds from other organizations within the religion, which in the past formed the traditional support of monasteries . There has been a long tradition of Christian monasteries providing hospitable, charitable and hospital services . Monasteries have often been associated with the provision of education and the encouragement of scholarship and research, which has led to the establishment of schools and colleges and the association with universities . Christian monastic life has adapted to modern society by offering computer services, accounting services and management as well as modern hospital and educational administration . </P> <P> Buddhist monasteries, known as vihara, emerged sometime around the 4th century BC, from the practice of vassa, the retreat undertaken by Buddhist monks and nuns during the South Asian rainy season . To prevent wandering monks from disturbing new plant growth or becoming stranded in inclement weather, Buddhist monks and nuns were instructed to remain in a fixed location for the roughly three - month period typically beginning in mid-July . Outside of the vassa period, monks and nuns both lived a migratory existence, wandering from town to town begging for food . These early fixed vassa retreats were held in pavilions and parks that had been donated to the sangha by wealthy supporters . Over the years, the custom of staying on property held in common by the sangha as a whole during the vassa retreat evolved into a more cenobitic lifestyle, in which monks and nuns resided year round in monasteries . </P> <P> In India, Buddhist monasteries gradually developed into centres of learning where philosophical principles were developed and debated; this tradition is currently preserved by monastic universities of Vajrayana Buddhists, as well as religious schools and universities founded by religious orders across the Buddhist world . In modern times, living a settled life in a monastery setting has become the most common lifestyle for Buddhist monks and nuns across the globe . </P> <P> Whereas early monasteries are considered to have been held in common by the entire sangha, in later years this tradition diverged in a number of countries . Despite vinaya prohibitions on possessing wealth, many monasteries became large land owners, much like monasteries in medieval Christian Europe . In China, peasant families worked monastic - owned land in exchange for paying a portion of their yearly crop to the resident monks in the monastery, just as they would to a feudal landlord . In Sri Lanka and Tibet, the ownership of a monastery often became vested in a single monk, who would often keep the property within the family by passing it on to a nephew who ordained as a monk . In Japan, where civil authorities permitted Buddhist monks to marry, being the head of a temple or monastery sometimes became a hereditary position, passed from father to son over many generations . </P>

What was it like to live in a monastery