Due to a burgeoning tourism industry in the Indian Himalayan region of Ladakh, Buddhist monasteries now have lucrative means for generating income through tourism-related business and financial support from international sponsors and local business owners. Where previously Buddhist monasteries were dependent on the donations and labour of the lay community, currently, with the accumulation of surplus wealth, many Buddhist leaders of prominent monasteries have begun flipping this donor system around. Throughout this article, I look at how Buddhist monastic leaders have invested surplus economic resources into philanthropic projects as a way to ‘give back’ to the wider community. I argue that the philanthropic initiatives by Buddhist leaders in Ladakh help to position Buddhist monastics as taking a leading role in the social and economic transformation of the region, thus working to push back against processes of secularization that threaten to decrease the influence of Buddhist monastic institutions.

由于拉达克的印度喜马拉雅地区旅游业蓬勃发展，佛教寺院现在具有通过与旅游有关的业务以及国际赞助商和本地企业主的财政支持来创收的有利手段。以前，佛教寺院依赖于外来社区的捐赠和劳力，而如今，随着剩余财富的积累，许多著名寺院的佛教领袖已开始把这种捐助者制度翻转过来。在整篇文章中，我将探讨佛教僧侣领袖如何将多余的经济资源投入到慈善项目中，以此作为“回馈”广大社区的一种方式。