As we all know, monks are people that live very religiously, and spend their life studying and following what they believe in, weather it is God or Buddha. What they do is take monastic vows and devote themselves to religion. The word monk comes from a Greek word, which means "alone". In reality, their comes a time in a person""s life where they need to be alone. Monks have to be this way all the time. They are not exactly alone, I mean away from the world, not communicating with people outside of the monastery. Some monks separate themselves from the world, so they won't have to worry about the world's concern, they may join communities, or they may live in solitude in one place or wander around as beggars. In either cases they pursue high individual goals. They try to reach a state of spiritual perfection. They feel that isolation from the world and it's temptation aids their quest.
Monasticism has played a vital role in the creation, preservation and transmission of culture. This was especially true of the Christian orders in the renaissance. Often the only members of society were monks. It was they who made and transmitted written copies of the Bible and other ancient works from generation to generation. They organized some of the first libraries. Often they conducted scientific and other research to benefit the surrounding .
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communities. They were expert farmers who were able to pass on benefits of their expertise to peasants on the large manors. The monasteries established by these orders were all self - contained communities and were divided into abbeys and priories, and the abbey was the main feature at the church. Other buildings were surrounded around the church, which formed a thing called the monastic compound. The monastery's cloister was an enclosed space surrounding all four sides of a rectangular court known as the garth. The four walls of the cloister were roofed.
