Śrāmaṇera
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia is now 14 years old
Our Encyclopedia recently received a wonderful opportunity for a major renewal on its 14th birthday . After many years of growing our Encyclopedia had become bit slow and sometimes even decided not to answer when people knocked on the door.
A very big thank you and blessings to Dmytro Rudiy (rudiy.nl) for his great work in upgrading the server, website and all of the infrastructure and helping make TBE fast and reliable again for everyone!
We kindly ask our readers to help us cover the cost of this important upgrade and also help with the ongoing costs of keeping the Encyclopedia alive and freely available.
or card
Every little donation helps and every one is deeply appreciated. 🙏🙏🙏
OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM 🙏🙏🙏
May blessings shower down on all of yous 🙏🙏🙏
A śrāmaṇera (Sanskrit; Pali: sāmaṇera; Burmese: ရှင်သာမဏေ shin thamanei, Thai: สามเณร Samanen, Khmer: សាមណេរ "Samaner") is a novice Monk in a Buddhist context.
The literal meaning is "small śramaṇa," that is, small renunciate, where "small" has the meaning of boy or girl.
In the Vinaya monastic discipline, a man under the age of 20 cannot ordain as a bhikṣu, but can ordain as a śrāmaṇera.
The female counterpart of the śrāmaṇera is the śrāmaṇerī.
Śrāmaṇeras and śrāmaṇerīs keep the ten precepts as their code of behaviour, and are devoted to the Buddhist religious life during a break from secular schooling, or in conjunction with it if devoted to formal ordination.
After a year or at the age of 20, a śrāmaṇera will be considered for the higher bhikṣu or bhikṣuṇī ordination.
Some monasteries will require people who want to ordain as a Monk to be a novice for a set period of time, as a period of preparation and familiarization.
Adults would normally wear the white robes of a Brahmin, as do Mae ji, who do not seek ordination.
Ordination differs between śrāmaṇeras and śrāmaṇerīs.