Monks can do the tank job adequately if necessary. That being said, the job plays away from the class's strengths. It's fundamentally an offense-minded class and being the tank means a lot of potential offense gets wasted via the opponent's dodge/parry. Overall damage reduction is potentially superior to that of anyone else except a Warrior using a discipline, however it's tougher for a Monk to gear for durability than it is for a plate tank, and again doing so may play away from the class's strengths--up until high-end (north temple veeshan) gear which has all stats in abundance. Monks also have lower hit point pools than Warriors, so from the perspective of a Cleric they can be tougher to heal efficiently even in spite of taking somewhat less average damage per minute. With the lower health pool Monks are more vulnerable to the sort of burst damage that kills tanks (unslowed adds, spell damage, harm touch, etc).
Monks are (correctly) regarded as the strongest overall melee class during this game era, and they get better with very high-end gear, but I wouldn't advise picking the class with the intention to primarily tank. Few groups advertising "looking for tank" have Monks in mind. The class has legitimate problems with burst and snap hate management. If you want to be a tank as your primary role, pick a proper tank class.
Danth
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