Discover

'Upasampada' (higher ordination) is not the same as samanera or novice ordination).
In the Buddhist context, 'samanera' (Pali, Sanskrit: 'śrāmaṇera') can be translated as 'novice monk'. It literally means 'small samana', or 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 bhikkhu, but can ordain as a samanera. The female counterpart of the samanera is the samaneri. Samaneras and samaneris keep the ten precepts as their code of behaviour, and are devoted to the Buddhist religious life.
After a year or at the age of 20, a samanera will be considered for the higher Bhikkhu or Bhikkhuni ordination (Pali: upasampada). 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.
The issue of ordination is different for samaneras and samaneris; the rules governing higher ordination are different for samaneras and samaneris.
In Theravada countries the Upasampada ceremony is performed in a structure called a Sima (Sima malaka), surrounded by water, and has to be attended by a specified number of senior monks with an unbroken upasampada succession from Teacher to pupil.

Contents

See also

See also

★ Sangha#Ordination_process