Disrobing Ceremony At Wat Buddhapadipa

At the end of the ten day period of being a novice monk at the Buddhapadipa Temple in London, there is a ‘disrobing’ ceremony which is the process of returning to life as a layman again. This follows the tradition carried out in Thailand.

The proceedings commenced after lunch with the novices along with their family and friends gathered in the shrine room in the main house before the venerable Abbot and monks.
The novices firstly asked for forgiveness in Pali from the venerable Abbot and the monks who had been their teachers during their stay just in case they had done something wrong or upset their mentors in any way. The Abbot then replied by forgiving the novices.

Following this, the novices made the traditional offering of flowers, candles, and incense to the Abbot, who then gave his last sermon to the novices, stressing the importance of applying the knowledge they had gained during their time as a novice monk in the temple to their daily lay life and asking them to strive to keep at least five precepts.

The Abbot then blessed the novices and their families and the novices expressed the words for disrobing following which the venerable Abbot pushed the robes off the novices’ left shoulders as official declaration that they were now returning to lay life. Each boy was presented with a certificate acknowledging the fact that they had completed the ten days.

The novices then left the room one by one and removed the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk and then returned to the shrine room in the clothes of a layman.
There then followed chanting, with the taking of the five precepts from Ajahn Sangthong Dhammacaro and a general blessing from the venerable abbot. The ceremony ended with the boys making offerings to the monks in gratitude of the training and teaching given to them at the temple over the course of the preceding ten days.