Nun

As a nun is referred to a female member of a Christian or Buddhist order.

Christianity

A nun is a female member of a contemplative religious order in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Anglican Church. The nun dedicates her life to God and to the service of the people by the constant prayer, especially the Liturgy of the Hours, which make the nuns at the mission of the Church solemnly in the choir of the church. Nuns are bound by solemn vows to God, the church and their community, while subject to an abbess or prioress.

The term " nun " ( feminine form of Greek and Latin " Nonnus ": " monk " ) includes canonically only living in papal cloistered monastic order. The non klausuriert living and non - monastic communities belonging sisters are called nuns. In strict enclosure living religious communities, for example the Carthusian nuns, the Poor Clares, the Carmelites, the Kamaldulenserinnen and the Order of the Benedictine religious family, such as the Trappist.

The terms nun and nun are often incorrectly used as synonyms. The male equivalent of a nun is a monk.

Buddhism

As a nun, a female member of an order referred to in Buddhism. Generally speaking, it refers to the fully ordained bhikkhuni, as it exists in the Mahayana and in parts of the Theravada. Even novices ( Samaneri ) or Sikkhamānā that are in the final two-year training period, are referred to as " Buddhist nun ". Since there are lines in the Tibetan ( Vajrayana ) are still valid nuns' ordination ( Gelongma ) have nuns who are called Gelongma taken their full ordination in other Mahayana lines (Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea).

Commonly, but not applicable, the term " nun " Mae Chi and other dressed in white and living in communities women who follow six, eight, or ten rules. They are more likely with pious laity ( Upasika ) comparable, but have a much lower reputation as lay people who are full citizens enjoy.

A special form are the Siladhara (ten vows nuns ), which was introduced in 1983 by Ajahn Sumedho with permission of Major Superiors in the Thai forest tradition in the western branch of the tradition. From a Western perspective, women were able to full training as a nun ( Siladhara ) obtained without the Thai dogma that there can be no nuns ( bhikkhuni ), injure; of Thai visibility was " the worst " prevented.