[Buddha-l] Temporary renouncing of the precepts.

[Andre Zuban]

Hello,

I'm rereading my copy of "The Buddhist Pilgrim at the Holy Sites in
Tibet" by G.C. Cybikov that I bought years ago. Among other quite
entertaining pieces, there was this paragraph I translated below from
it's original Russian:

"On this day some Amdos lamas went hunting and killed three antelopes
[...]. Bringing meat to the camp, they cooked it and treated all the
fellow travelers. [...] I asked them why they, being lamas, kill
animals. To this they replied that when still at home they renounced
their spiritual vows and will take them back only after returning
there because during the arduous journey to Tibet, where there may be
random battles with robbers, it is impossible to observe the monastic
rules."

I wonder how widespread this practice was? Were there any other
instances of it in the history of Buddhism?

Thank you,
Andre Zuban