Community
The resident community consists of monks (bhikkhus), nuns (siladhara), and male and female postulants who live in accordance with strict traditional codes of celibacy, together with a volunteer support staff and visitors. According to the monastery website, regarding the male monastic community, "Usually, there are between 15 and 25 bhikkhus and samaneras in residence, living a contemplative, celibate, mendicant life according to the Vinaya and Dhamma. The community also consists of anagārikas, or white robed postulants on the eight precepts, who after a year or two may be given samanera ordination." The monastery's order of siladhara, or ten-precept nuns, dates from 1983; there are 10 or so members and a number of female postulants at Amaravati and at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in West Sussex.
Read more about this topic: Amaravati Buddhist Monastery
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