Ayya (Pali Word)

Ayya (Pali Word)

Ayya is a Pali word, translated as "honourable" or "worthy." It is most commonly used as a veneration in addressing or referring to an ordained female Buddhist monk, most often of the Theravadan tradition in southeast Asia. It is sometimes mistaken as equivalent to Christian use of the word, "sister." Ayya can refer to either a bhikkhuni (fully ordained and usually wearing orange or yellow robes in southeast Asia) or a samaneri (shramanerika) ten-precept novice renunciant or a sikkhamana (wearing white, brown or sometimes pink), but not to non-ordained precept-holders.

Generally for bhikkhunis, robes would be maroon with yellow in Tibet; gray (for Mahayanans) or orange/yellow (for Theravadans) in Vietnam; gray in Korea; gray or black in China and Taiwan; black in Japan; orange or yellow in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Laos, Cambodia and Burma. The colour of robes distinguishes both level of ordination and tradition, with white (usually worn by a male renunciant before ordination) or pink symbolising a state of ambiguity, being on the threshold of a decision, no longer secular and not yet monastic. A key exception to this is in the countries where women are not allowed to wear robes that signify full ordination, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and (Theravadans in) Vietnam. So, the majority of Ayyas wear orange/yellow or white/pink.