Ayya

Who was Ayya?

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 or a samaneri ten-precept novice renunciant or a sikkhamana, but not to non-ordained precept-holders.

Generally for bhikkhunis, robes would be maroon with yellow in Tibet; gray or orange/yellow 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 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 Vietnam. So, the majority of Ayyas wear orange/yellow or white/pink.