For 1,000 years Tibet was run by its monasteries or gonads, which overlooked every town and settlement. A handful was great monastic cities, such as Drepung and sea, with thousand of monks. Several score, like same, housed about 500. Most were small, without land holdings, supported by the monks; relatives. Monasteries were the pillars of Tibet. Under the rule of the dalai lamas, monasteries were free from taxation and they formed independent economic units. If they owned land, they held the local people as serfs. Trade and commerce were an integral part of their existence. The bigger ones accumulated vast wealth.

Every family in Tibet was expected to give at least one son to the monk hood. It is estimated that about one-fifth of Tibet male population was celibate monks. The religious life, open to all, was the only avenue to education, improved social status or power. A monk brought honors and merit to his family and might, after long study, become a lama. The monasteries were the only centers of learning, art, literature and medicine in Tibet. They embodied every formal aspect of the culture.

The structure of authority throughout Tibet depended on `incarnate lamas`----monks, discovered as small children, who were thought to be the reincarnations of previous abbots or lamas and were not infrequently found in the families of powerful nobles. About 2,000 of these talks existed at any one time. At the pinnacle stood the dalai and panache lamas, who were acclaimed as incarnations of a bodhisattvas and a Buddha. Tibet was governed by the dalai lama along with is regent,cabinet and council made up the abbot of principle monasteries and lay nobleman who own much of Tibet's land and were rich and influential in their own right. Boys become monk in the age of seven girls far fewer in numbers-becomes nuns at ten age. Only the brightest entered a scholarly life with in the monastery school, many more becomes craftsmen's, clerks, builders, artist, cooks, housekeeper or monk soldiers feared for their ferocity. Those who educated followed a long course of study, examinations and initiations that lasted for 20 to 25 years. Examination took the form of debates between the student monk and more learned Lamas. Only after mastering logic rhetoric, theology and close analysis of the Buddhist sutras could become Lama himself. When he becomes advance state of learning, he was considered eligible to follow the path of esoteric or occult doctrines and could develop paranormal powers. Life for a monk, regardless of his status in the monastery was rigorous. He rose before dawn and was occupied all day with religious services, administrative tasks, study, vigils, sutra chanting recitation memory work and the never -ending of communal life.