Lamaserie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A monastic community housing Buddhist lamas, typically found in Tibet, Mongolia or other regions where Lamaism is practiced
2. A religious house where monks following the Tibetan Buddhist tradition live, study and worship together under a lama's guidance
3. An establishment of Lamaist monks, often a large complex of temples and residences in the Himalayan or Mongolian highlands

Etymology: "Lamaserie" is a dated spelling of "lamasery," a monastery of the Lamaist (Tibetan Buddhist) tradition, and its story begins with a French coinage. The word came into English from French "lamaserie," which was formed from "lama," the Tibetan title for a Buddhist monk or teacher. The French term was an irregular formation: rather than following the usual pattern for naming a monastery, its builders attached an ending to "lama" that does not match the regular French word for such a place, so the form looks improvised rather than inherited. The spelling "lamaserie" preserves that French shape, while "lamasery" is the form that became standard in English. Because the word was adopted from French as a borrowing rather than built up from English roots, it reflects how European writers first described Tibetan religious life through the vocabulary they had at hand, which is why its ending sounds more like the French word for a monastery than like the Tibetan terms it stands in for.

Synonyms: lamasery, monastery, gompa