(skt) . shami (Jpn) . samanera (Pali) . A male novice in the Buddhist Order who has renounced secular life and vowed to uphold the ten precepts. Shramanera refers to a novice from age seven to nineteen, before he has received all the precepts and become a full-fledged monk (Skt bhikshu ). The female equivalent is shramanerior shramanerika. According to The Great Canon of Monastic Rules, a shramanera belongs to one of three categories, depending on his age. The first category covers those from seven to thirteen years of age, when one is old enough to drive away crows from the dining area, and the second, from fourteen to nineteen, when one is old enough to pursue monastic life. The third category covers those twenty and older, when they have not yet taken vows to observe the complete commandments of full-fledged monks and still remain novices. In Japan, the title shami, the Japanese transliteration of shramanera, came to mean a lay priest. Though they shaved their heads and possessed religious names, priests with the title shami had wives and children and lived as laypersons.