Gelongma

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Gelongma (feminine term) or Gelong (masculine term) is the Tibetan word for a fully ordained monastic observing the entire vinaya.

Getshül (Tib <dge tshul>) is the preparation monastic level prior to Gelongma. A lay person may take five vows called "approaching virtue" (in Tibetan genyen <dge snyan>).

Starting with the novice ordination (Tib. ge tsul) it may take some forty years in order to arrive at the bhikkshu (Tib. gelong] vows of a fully ordained monk.^[1]

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ see lifestory of Ven. Geshe Palden Tsering, born in 1934 in Zakok, he took the novice ordination at the age of eight (1942?); in 1973 he took the bhikkshu vows of a fully ordained monk.