Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, a śikṣamāṇā (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

;

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

: ''sikkhamānā''; ; ; ) is a female novice trainee. This training period is to be two years long, supervised by both a monk and a nun. After this period, the trainee may attempt full ordination as a bhikṣuṇī.

Overview

According to Buddhist tradition, a young woman should be ordained, by both a monk and a nun, first as a

śrāmaṇerī A (Pali; ), is a novice male monk in a Buddhist context. A female novice nun is in , and in or . In Tibetan Buddhism, a female novice nun is known by the Lhasa Tibetan, Tibetan language term , and a male novice monk is a .Theravada ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhi ...

vinaya The Vinaya (Pali and Sanskrit: विनय) refers to numerous monastic rules and ethical precepts for fully ordained monks and nuns of Buddhist Sanghas (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). These sets of ethical rules and guidelines devel ...

has 311 rules of discipline for bhikkhunis. Within

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

society, as an example, members of the Sangha are expected to renounce family connections and accept the

Sangha Sangha or saṃgha () is a term meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community". In a political context, it was historically used to denote a governing assembly in a republic or a kingdom, and for a long time, it has been used b ...

as their family. Thus, according to Vinaya Pitaka, the ordination order for women is: # Śrāmaṇerī # Śikṣamāṇā # Bhikṣuṇī

External links

"In depth comparative study of the Sikkhamānā training from all Vinayas"
by Dhammacaro (07/23/2005).
"Vinaya Pitaka"
brief description includes "Order of ordination for men and women...." Buddhist nuns Buddhist monasticism Sanskrit words and phrases Buddhist titles Ordination of women in Buddhism {{Buddhism-stub

Overview

See also

External links