how to say "buddhist monk" mandarin

[sherab]

Hello, I just found your forum today. I would like to know how to write or preferably say (in Mandarin) - Buddhist monk. Ideally I want to say " I am going to Thailand to be a Buddhist monk" so I can explain this to my Tai Ji teacher here in U.K. who speaks very little English.

I have searched the forum and found - "heshang" and elsewhere - "shao zhi" for monk, but unsure how to pronounce as the only word I know is "Sifu" and I cannot speak Mandarin.

I apologise if this is not an appropriate request - the users here seem to be serious students, so i do not want to misuse the forum, but I would be very grateful for your help.

[L-F-J]

和尚 héshang is the common word for "buddhist monk" in mandarin.

"to become a monk" is 出家 chūjiā, which literally means to "leave home".

you can say; 我去泰国出家 wǒ qù tàiguó chūjiā. "i am going to thailand to become a monk (leave home)." or 我打算去泰国出家 wǒ dǎsuàn qù tàiguó chūjiā. "i plan to go to thailand to become a monk", or 我想去泰国出家 wǒ xiǎng qù tàiguó chūjiā "i would like to go to thailand to become a monk."

[Daan]

And if you're unsure how to pronounce all that, you can use this website's TTS software. Try this link to hear how to pronounce 我去泰国出家, for example

[analgesia]

I am going to Thailand to be a Buddhist monk

我打算去泰国当一名佛教徒 （written form）

我准备去泰国出家 （verbal form and frequently used usually)

Hope this may be helpful

[L-F-J]

佛教徒 is simply a "buddhist", literally a "disciple of buddhism", not necessarily a monk, no?

[analgesia]

我打算去泰国当一个“ 佛门弟子”

feels better？

[sherab]

Thank you everyone for your responses. Especially Daan for the information and link for pronunciation. Just one thing - what do all the ????? mean? in the posts. How does that work?

Best wishes

[Daan]

Those would have been Chinese characters that apparently your browser is having trouble displaying. You might have to change your browser's character set. Try setting it to Unicode UTF-8. Generally, this is an option under View -> Character set.

[sherab]

Thank you Daan. I have tried what you suggest, but still read only ??? Any other suggestion?

[skylee]

another term for "buddhist monk" that hasn't been mentioned here yet is 僧人 (sengren).

[skylee]

If your pc does not support chinese characters, try to view this thread using this tool -> http://pici.picidae.net (paste the url in the space and press return).

Hope it helps.

[chrix]

There is also 僧侶 sēnglǚ, although it can refer to monks of other religions such as Christian monks.

I have a friend who is a Buddhist monk, and I like to use his title to refer to him, 法師 fǎshī

[L-F-J]

i think 僧人 sēngrén and 僧侣 sēnglǚ can refer to either a monk or a nun.

the character 僧 sēng is a shortened transliteration of the sanskrit word "sangha", meaning the buddhist monastic community (either monks or nuns).

法师 fǎshī literally means "dharma master" and is an honorific titled used on a monk or nun, not by them. so if the original poster wants to say he will become a monk, its best to say he will 出家 chūjiā (leave home) or become a 和尚 héshang (buddhist monk). this is the word for a male monastic. a female, nun, is called 尼姑 nígū or 尼僧 nísēng.

[sherab]

Just a further thank you. This time especially skylee for the link / information, which allowed me to download gif images for all the characters offered. And yes L-F-J, I will be an ordinary bhikkhu (pali) certainly not a dharma master - maybe one day! In the Theravada tradition in Thailand one is said to "go forth into the homeless life", so the suggestions offered are compatible with that.

[L-F-J]

the chinese transliteration of bhikkhu (sanskrit: bhikshu) is 比丘 bǐqiū, but that is really only used in the chinese sutras where they dont translate many words like that.

the equivalent in spoken chinese is 和尚 héshang, but they are different from the theravada tradition, in that to be fully ordained in china you must also take the bodhisattva precepts on top of the full pratimoksha.

[imron]

@sherab, if you are using Windows XP, you can also enable support for East Asian languages in Control Panel -> Regional and Language Settings. You will need the XP install CDs to do it however.

[L-F-J]

by the way, sherab-

in chinese tradition people just refer to monks as 法师 fǎshī, meaning dharma master/teacher, regardless of their experience or whether or not they teach. it is just a term of respect when speaking to or about a monk/nun. it is equivalent of the term "venerable" that is tagged onto the monk's dharma-name.

you would never use the term on yourself anyway, just like you wouldnt say "i am ven. so-and-so". or say that you will become a "fashi".