Do Buddhist monks live an ascetic life style? Please note that my understanding of Buddhist principles may be very much influenced by popular depictions. 

I have read that the eight-fold path teaches that you should strike a balance between asceticism and indulgence. 

Common depictions of Buddhist monks often shows them living a very ascetic lifestyle. My sources for this are simply what I have seen in documentaries online.

My questions are:


Do Buddhist monks live such an ascetic life style? If so, then why? Is this not going against the eight-fold path?
If the depictions I have in mind are untrue then what is Buddhist monastery life like such that it balances indulgence and asceticism?
Roughly 3 categories of buddhists could be seen: the lay, the monastic, and the ascetic. Monks usually live in a monastic community but some do live in a more solitude/ascetic way. 

I've never seen ascetic life condemned in the suttas. The rhinoceros sutta is commonly brought as praising ascetic life and I understand that in the Theravada vinaya there's the practice of Dhutanga. I believe it can be beneficial when the monasteries available present too much obstacles for the practice. But asceticism when living alone can be harder without community support.

Here, I am trying to differentiate the buddhist ascetic practices from ascetic practices performed by other religions (such as extreme fasting, self-mortification, etc). From the point of view of these extreme practices, a buddhist ascetic has a moderate life style. Also, english translations of the suttas have the Buddha referred to as "the ascetic Gotama", where "ascetic" translates samaṇo.

The Buddha praised a life of freedom and few belongings: a robe, something to help gathering food on alms round, and a proper location to meditate and sleep (e.g caves, under trees, etc).

I think it's problematic to reduce the eightfold path as a teaching on "balance". First, because it's a very rich and detailed system. Second, because anyone can perceive their own life as balanced. If anything, "balance" might be taught to laity because it's hard to be fully committed to the practice while also committed to normal life.

The problem of perceiving buddhism in that way (which is the way it is frequently exposed in the west) is that it leads people into think their indulgences are moderate, and that renouncing them is an extreme that should be avoided. Moreover, it has the strange effect of creating the perception of the monk's life as an extreme austerity (and, if buddhism was teaching that, no one should ever be a buddhist monk).