ABSTRACT
Religious education was the major factor in the extension of literacy throughout Tibet. Since the monastic orders and nunneries were open to all Tibetans, regardless of their social background, this large sector of Tibetan life provided total mobility to all strata of the population, and education was thus available to people from all classes. Aside from or continuing the early private education, the children of the aristocracy, the urban middle class, and the upper social levels of the rural communities went to private schools in the urban centers and rural towns. The private schools were attended not only by the children of aristocratic and what people have called middle-class families, but also by children of common farmers and herdsmen. Reading also included popular literature: stories used in folk operas, heroic epics, stories of kings and their consorts, and love stories, which often ended in tragedy.
