Tsa Yig

The Tsa Yig (Tibetan: བཅའ་ཡིག་, Wylie: bca' yig) is any monastic constitution or code of moral discipline based on codified Tibetan Buddhist precepts. Every Tibetan monastery and convent had its own Tsa Yig, and the variation in Tsa Yig content shows a degree of autonomy and internal democracy.

In Bhutan, the Tsa Yig Chenmo (Dzongkha: བཅའ་ཡིག་ཆེན་མོ་; Wylie: bca' yig chen-mo; "constitution, code of law") refers to the legal code enacted by founder Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal around 1629. Before the Shabdrung enacted the Tsa Yig as the national legal code, he had established the code as the law of Ralung and Cheri Monasteries by 1620. The code described the spiritual and civil regime and provided laws for government administration and for social and moral conduct. The duties and virtues inherent in the Buddhist religious law (dharma) played a large role in the legal code, which remained in force until the 1960s.

The Tsa Yig, as monastic constitutions or ordinances, emphasize institutional organization and the liturgical calendar. Considered a special type of Buddhist literature, these codes have a close connection with, but are separate from, the general vinaya rules on individual morality and conduct. While they shared some common elements of basic structure, individual Tsa Yig codes vary considerably in scope and content, such that no one could be called typical. These variations indicate a measure of monastic autonomy and internal democracy.

For example, one Tsa Yig included anti-hunting laws banning hunting outright for monks as well as regulating hunting among laypersons. The tsa yig for one gelugpa establishment provides, "when itinerant game hunters appear, they should be punished by gathering their weapons in the protector's temple and in addition exhorted once again to observe lawfulness."

...
Wikipedia