ABSTRACT
The large majority of the managers of monastic estates, aristocratic estates, and labrangs were mi-ser, and the income and fortune of their religious institutions or patrons' families depended largely on their efficiency and success in administration and profit making. Trade and business, as much as agriculture and nomadism, thus fell within the scope of Max Weber's famous concept of "elective affinity" between ideology and society-in Tibet, the relationship between the Buddhist religion and Tibetan society and economy. The situation of the Tibetan refugee communities in India and of their religiopolitical leadership shows an extraordinarily successful ability not only to survive but to flourish. On the contrary, the story of the success in India and the survival of a culture in exile after an unparalleled disaster at home indicate that human faith and willpower are the chief weapons for national survival, and Tibetan Buddhism has proved its strength in adversity.
