Monastic education

The Buddhist monastic education system facilitates basic educational needs of the Asian Buddhist countries before the contemporary era. Learning traditions can be traced back to ancient India where learning began with educated monastics, teaching younger monks and the lay people. The monastic instruction was based on Buddhist value system and emphasized that learning was an end in itself, one that is "worth a strenuous pursuit to possess for its own sake" and that "teaching was for ends that were above mere gain".