Pabbajja (
Pali
;
Skt.:Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
pravrajya) literally means "to go forth" and refers to when a
laypersonIn English translations of Buddhist literature, householder denotes a variety of terms. Most broadly, it refers to any layperson, and most narrowly, to a wealthy and prestigious familial patriarch...
leaves home to live the life of a Buddhist renunciate among a
communitySangha is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose. It is commonly used in several senses to refer to Buddhist or Jain groups...
of monks (
bhikkhuA Bhikku , Bhikṣu is a fully ordained male Buddhist monastic. Female monastic is called Bhikkhuni . Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis keep many precepts: they live by the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline, the basic rules of which are called the patimokkha...
s). This generally involves preliminary ordination as a novice (m.
samaneraIn Buddhist context, a samanera 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 , a man under the age of 20 cannot ordain as a bhikkhu, but can ordain as a samanera. The female counterpart of the...
, f.
samaneriA samaneri is a novice Buddhist nun, who lives according to the ten precepts. Male novices are called samaneras. A woman is to be ordained, according to Theravada tradition, by both a monk and a nun, first as a samaneri. After a year or at the age of 20, she will be ordained as a full bhikkhuni....
). It is sometimes referred to as "lower ordination." After a period of time or when the novice reaches 20 years of age, the novice can be considered for the
upasampadaUpasampadā literally means literally "approaching or nearing the ascetic tradition." In more common parlance it specifically refers to the rite of ordination by which one undertakes the Buddhist monastic life....
ordination (or "higher ordination") whereby the novice becomes a monk (
bhikkhuA Bhikku , Bhikṣu is a fully ordained male Buddhist monastic. Female monastic is called Bhikkhuni . Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis keep many precepts: they live by the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline, the basic rules of which are called the patimokkha...
) or nun (
bhikkhuniA Bhikkhuni is a fully ordained female Buddhist monastic. Male monastics are called Bhikkhus. Both Bhikkunis and Bhikkhus live by the vinaya...
).
In some traditional
TheravadaTheravada Theravada Theravada (Pāli: थेरवाद theravāda (cf Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda); literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
countries, such as
MyanmarBurma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia or Indochina. The country is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest and the Bay of Bengal to the...
, boys undergo pabbajja at the age of puberty.
Discussion
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Pabbajja (
Pali
;
Skt.:Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
pravrajya) literally means "to go forth" and refers to when a
laypersonIn English translations of Buddhist literature, householder denotes a variety of terms. Most broadly, it refers to any layperson, and most narrowly, to a wealthy and prestigious familial patriarch...
leaves home to live the life of a Buddhist renunciate among a
communitySangha is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose. It is commonly used in several senses to refer to Buddhist or Jain groups...
of monks (
bhikkhuA Bhikku , Bhikṣu is a fully ordained male Buddhist monastic. Female monastic is called Bhikkhuni . Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis keep many precepts: they live by the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline, the basic rules of which are called the patimokkha...
s). This generally involves preliminary ordination as a novice (m.
samaneraIn Buddhist context, a samanera 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 , a man under the age of 20 cannot ordain as a bhikkhu, but can ordain as a samanera. The female counterpart of the...
, f.
samaneriA samaneri is a novice Buddhist nun, who lives according to the ten precepts. Male novices are called samaneras. A woman is to be ordained, according to Theravada tradition, by both a monk and a nun, first as a samaneri. After a year or at the age of 20, she will be ordained as a full bhikkhuni....
). It is sometimes referred to as "lower ordination." After a period of time or when the novice reaches 20 years of age, the novice can be considered for the
upasampadaUpasampadā literally means literally "approaching or nearing the ascetic tradition." In more common parlance it specifically refers to the rite of ordination by which one undertakes the Buddhist monastic life....
ordination (or "higher ordination") whereby the novice becomes a monk (
bhikkhuA Bhikku , Bhikṣu is a fully ordained male Buddhist monastic. Female monastic is called Bhikkhuni . Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis keep many precepts: they live by the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline, the basic rules of which are called the patimokkha...
) or nun (
bhikkhuniA Bhikkhuni is a fully ordained female Buddhist monastic. Male monastics are called Bhikkhus. Both Bhikkunis and Bhikkhus live by the vinaya...
).
In some traditional
TheravadaTheravada Theravada Theravada (Pāli: थेरवाद theravāda (cf Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda); literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
countries, such as
MyanmarBurma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia or Indochina. The country is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest and the Bay of Bengal to the...
, boys undergo pabbajja at the age of puberty. In
MahayanaMahayana is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice. It was founded in India...
countries such as
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the pabbajja is preceded by a probationary period.
Source
- Encyclopædia Britannica (2007a). "Pabbajja." Retrieved 26 Sept 2007 from "Encyclopædia Britannica Online" at http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057892.
- Encyclopædia Britannica (2007b). "Upasampada." Retrieved 26 Sept 2007 from "Encyclopædia Britannica Online" at http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9074384.
External links