Pātra

Pātra , ལྷུང་བཟེད་ ; (P. patta; T. lhung bzed; C. bo; J. hachi; K. pal 鉢). In Sanskrit, “begging bowl” or “alms bowl,” the bowl that monks, nuns, female probationers, and male and female novices use for gathering alms food (PIṆḌAPĀTA).

The bowl is one of the eight requisites (PARIṢKĀRA) allowed the monk, and (along with robes), is the most visible possession of a monk. Because of its ubiquity in Buddhist monasticism, the bowl is an object of high practical and symbolic value within the tradition and thus figures prominently in Buddhist practice, institutions, and literature.

There are rules of what materials bowls may, and may not, be made of. They are usually made of iron or clay and may be of three sizes, large, medium, or small. Offering food to monks is one of the primary means by which the laity may earn religious merit, and the bowl is symbolic of the close bonds of mutual support that are at the heart of monastic-lay relations. One of the most severe penalties the SAṂGHA can administer to the laity, therefore, is to refuse their donations.

This act of ultimate censure is called “overturning the bowl” (S. PĀTRANIKUBJANA), and is imposed on a layperson who has, for example, harmed the interests of the saṃgha, abused monks or nuns, or spoken disparagingly of the Buddha, dharma, or saṃgha. If the layperson makes amends, the saṃgha ends its boycott by “turning the bowl upright” and receiving gifts from him or her again. In all traditions of Buddhism, the bowls of past masters have functioned as relics (and were sometimes enshrined). In some traditions, most famously that of the CHAN school, the bowl was passed on from teacher to student as a symbol of lineage and as an insignia of authority.