Thai Buddhist rituals....a question.

[riceyummm]

My wife, along with five female friends and family, is currently spending two weeks (24/7) at the temple. She explained that she is being trained and/or ordained as a.....? lay nun? I've often seen the ladies in white walking to and from the temple. My wife often walks to and from the temple in everyday clothes. My assumption is that in the future she will be wearing white for temple (she has sent pictures and they are all in white). Am I correct? Can anyone explain this process to me? I'll learn all about it when she returns but I'm kinda curious right now.

Peace.

Edited October 28, 2013 by riceyummm

[fabianfred]

Being dressed in white doesn't mean that you have ordained as a nun. Men do it too when they attend meditation retreats at temples. It just signifies to others that one is (usually) keeping the 8 precepts and attending a temple stay.

Nuns do wear white....but theirs are white robes and they shave their heads...not necessary for yogis (that is how the 8 precept meditators are referred to.)

Edited October 29, 2013 by fabianfred

[riceyummm]

Being dressed in white doesn't mean that you have ordained as a nun. Men do it too when they attend meditation retreats at temples. It just signifies to others that one is (usually) keeping the 8 precepts and attending a temple stay.

Nuns do wear white....but theirs are white robes and they shave their heads...not necessary for yogis (that is how the 8 precept meditators are referred to.)

Thanks for the response, it helped a lot. She is home now and we've discussed it. Sounds more like a retreat than an ordination. I believe she got that word from Google Translate and that retreat would have been more accurate.

Now I remember FIL dressing in white and spending some nights at the temple, usually just one night at a time but quite often.