On the Remote 'Ordination' Tradition

In an interview/discussion "How Buddhism invented Asia" (2 April 2009) with academic Peter Skilling, Late Night Live host Phillip Adams asked the following question.

"Was there ever a central administrative capital for Buddhism, something like Rome where edicts could be sent out, where training was centralized, where resources were sent?"

Peter Skilling: "No. There was never a Rome in Buddhism. I think it depends...its...this is because of the structure of the Buddhist monastic order. A quorum of monks, which would be ten or even five in a remoter area, can ordain new monks and set up their own monastic community. And that community is not responsible to a parent community, or to a greater community; so that as the Buddhist monastic order spread throughout Asia, it would establish its own independent centres, and they were never responsible to a Rome, a centre."

Ref. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2009/2533073.htm