Addressing a novice (samanera)

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

I'm just wondering if for a layperson there's any difference in how they should address a samanera (novice) compared to a fully-fledged bhikkhu?

Metta,
Retro.

[Dhammanando]

Hi Retro,

I'm just wondering if for a layperson there's any difference in how they should address a samanera (novice) compared to a fully-fledged bhikkhu?

In Sri Lanka, where people don't distinguish much between samaneras and bhikkhus (i.e. in many cases few people know whether a certain monk is one or the other), the manner of address is usually the same as for a bhikkhu: 'bhante'.

Everywhere else they're just addressed as 'samanera' (in Thai 'saamanen' or 'nen' for short) or by their name.

Best wishes,
Dhammanando Bhikkhu

[retrofuturist]

Thank you, venerable.

Something like this, which I knew would be common knowledge to a bhikkhu, could have taken me ages to find out through other methods.

Metta,
Retro.