Category talk:Buddhist priests from Japan

Merge proposal

I noticed this category was created and well populated, but it seems the naming is contrary to existing convention, and probably needs to be merged into Category:Buddhist monks of Japan (even though the latter is less well populated).

• Currently Category:Buddhist monks by country contains 16 countries.
• There is no "Category:Buddhist priests by country" and would only have Japan and Thailand as subcategories. --Kiyoweap (talk) 10:40, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Priests and monks are not the same

This category should not redirect to as it does now. There is a substantial difference between Buddhist monks and priests. For example, there are no monks in Jodo Shinshu, but there are priests. It is factually incorrect to claim that "priest" and "monk" are synonymous in Buddhism. Both could however be subcategories to some broader category, such as "Buddhist clergy" or the like. Sigvid (talk) 18:56, 3 October 2021 (UTC)

By the way, the Japanese term "僧侶" may refer to both monks and priests. That does not mean that there is no difference between monks and priests. The motivation ""monks" instead of "priests" is already used in existing category for all other countries" seems to be based on a misunderstanding. To my knowledge most Buddhsit denominations primarily or only have monks and nuns rather than priests, but in some denominations there are priests. In Jodo Shinshu and Jodo Shu, there are priests but no monks. In Zen they seem to have both. Sigvid (talk) 19:01, 3 October 2021 (UTC)