A small religious residence found in a relatively isolated mountain location. Most hermitages began as the place a single individual settled for intensive, solitary practice, these  individuals being variously called “retreatant” (mtshams pa), “meditator” (sgom chen), “recluse” (gcig bu pa  or dben sa pa), and “hermit” (ri khrod pa).  Originally, these sites may have been just a cave with no buildings or, when no cave existed, the practitioner might have built a simple stone-and-mud hut. Subsequently, and based on the renown and charisma of their original resident/founder, communities coalesced and the hermitage grew in size. When it became relatively large, the site often ceased to be called “hermitage” and began to be called “monastery” (dgon pa), but the dividing line between these two terms – hermitage (ri khrod) and monastery (dgon pa) – is fuzzy. There are some hermitages, for example, that have more monks than many institutions that bear the name “monastery.” Many of Tibet’s greatest monasteries began as the hermitage of an individual practitioner.