Vinaya is the division of the Buddhist canon containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist monastic community, or Sangha.
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Three parallel Vinaya traditions remain in use by modern monastic communities: the Theravada, Mulasarvastivada and Dharmaguptaka.
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The earliest dates that can be established for most Vinaya texts is their translation into Chinese around the 5th Century CE.
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The Mulasarvastivada Vinaya was translated into Chinese in the 8th Century and Tibetan in the 9th Century but Sanskrit manuscripts exist from the 5th - 7th Century.
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Second major component of the Vinaya is the Vibhanga or Suttavibhanga, which provides commentary on each of the rules listed in the Pratimoksa.
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The Pali Vinaya includes a text known as the Parivara that contains a question-and-answer format that recapitulates various rules in different groupings, as well as a variety of analyses.
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Tibetan Buddhists in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia, Nepal, Ladakh and other places follow the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya, which has 253 rules for the bhiksus and 364 rules for bhiksunis.
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