The Chinese surname Zhu 竺, which originally meant "a kind of bamboo" and was later used for "India (abbreviating Tianzhu 天竺)" and "Buddhism", was adopted by many early Buddhist monks, such as the polyglot translator Zhu Fahu 竺法護 or Dharmarakṣa (c. 230-316).
Bhikkhu | Bhikkhu Bodhi | bhikkhu |
In 1981 Ajahn Sucitto (now the abbot of Cittaviveka/Chithurst Buddhist Monastery) became the first bhikkhu to take up residence, and began initial renovations; on June 21, 1981 the monastery was officially opened by Ajahn Sumedho and in that same year the Magga Bhavaka Trust was established as a charitable trust in order to steward financial support for the new monastery (the monastery now has a new trust: Harnham Buddhist Monastery Trust).
Bhikkhu Anālayo is a Professor of the Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Hamburg and works as a researcher at Dharma Drum Buddhist College, Taiwan.
He abandoned his kingdom in Sri Lanka and journeyed to Ramesvaram, where he became a Bhikkhu.
In 1903, at the age of 25, Nyanatiloka briefly visited Sri Lanka and then proceeded in order to Burma to meet the English Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya.
The first bhikkhu was ordained in Burma in 1800 by the sangharaja of Burma in Amarapura, his party having been welcomed to Burma by King Bodawpaya.
In the spring of 1990 the Italian Bhikkhu Ajahn Thanavaro (later Mario Thanavaro) and then Anagarika John Angelori were sent by Ajahn Sumedho to take up residence in a small house outside the village of Sezze-Romano south of Rome.
In more common parlance it specifically refers to the rite of ordination by which one undertakes the Buddhist monastic life.