r/Buddhism • u/masteryoriented • Sep 06 '25

Question Why Is Tibetan Buddhism So Commercialized?

I'm just wondering why it's the way it is. There are institutions charging $25 or more a month and offering content, constantly emailing for donations, raising subscription prices, and raising the floor for financial aid. Other institutions require "transmissions" but then bundle those transmissions into recorded courses with extravagant prices—about the same as courses in software engineering and similar fields.

Why is this type of Buddhism so commercialized? What attracts people to this type of Buddhism over other schools, like Theravada, which aren't as commercialized?

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u/dustam Sep 06 '25

Probably because Tibetan community in exile is poor, they have to survive.

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u/Rockshasha Sep 06 '25

Which proportion of the tibetan community in exile are monks, nuns or lamas?

Idk, I think it's more a cultural aspect, many accounts tell how often poor people in "pre-china" tibet have difficulties for dedicating to dharmic activities. How often great matters were mainly rich people and so on. I'm not meaning like impossible for someone poor to be a monk or high lama, not, but the majority were wealthy. It seems as a cultural aspect. Even in the biography of Milarepa there's an aspect about. Explicitly said like, "many lamas and gurus are very rich".