ブータンにおける僧院の社会包摂機能と教育的ジレンマ

抄録

In Bhutan, monastic education, continuing since the seventeenth century, and modern formal schooling, introduced in the 1960s, coexist independently. The former is administered by the Central Monastic Body, the latter by the Ministry of Education. This dual structure reflects Bhutan's unique dual system of polity (Chhoe-sid-nyi). Monastic education focuses on religious and ethical instruction in Classical Tibetan (Chöke). In a country where primary school enrolment exceeds 90%, children attending monastic education often come from disadvantaged backgrounds, including poverty, orphanhood, parental abandonment, or dropout from formal schooling. Without compulsory education and under separate jurisdictions, children lack opportunities to acquire knowledge, skills, and English, essential for Bhutan's socio-economic functions.

Monasteries function as a “safety net” and a site of “social inclusion,” while generating a “dilemma” by constraining future options. They occupy the “grey zone of education” (Sugimoto 2014), and although access to modern schooling is limited, “religious education” serves as a hidden barrier, obscuring accountability for the “right to education” (United Nations 1989). These children are termed “the second invisible children,” with a focus on the dilemmas they face.

This study has three objectives. First, to clarify the historical formation of the dual educational system and the institutional gap in state responsibility. Second, to analyse the educational conditions of monastic children against UN conventions on children, highlighting divergences between frameworks and practice. Third, through field research, to examine types of monastic education (Sato 2025a) and perceptions of monks, local communities, and teachers. Fieldwork from 2023 to 2024 confirmed disparities in access to modern education between state-supported Drukpa monasteries and others. Stakeholders' views were diverse. While welfare and educational roles of monasteries were valued, school authorities raised concerns over violations of children's right to education and the arbitrariness of educational outcomes. Implicit practices were observed in which villages encouraged impoverished families to place children in monasteries in exchange for economic support, sustaining village monasteries; for families, it reduced the economic burden, and for monasteries, it served as a recruitment mechanism for future monks. Balancing religious autonomy with children's access to essential education remains a central challenge in Bhutan.