Addressing invite to Buddhist monk?

[lliang_chi]

Calling on all ettiquette mavens, how do you address an invite to a woman Buddhist monk? They call her Sifu, which means master, she''s the head of the temple. I REALLY wish my mom didn''t get it in her head to invite these random people...

 

[kama_s]

HAHAHAHAHHAHA, sorry, I have no advice for you but I just have to say that is just absolutely hilarious. FWIW, my mother wanted me to invite 6 priests to our wedding, and she also wanted ALL of them to do our ceremony and/or bless us infront of all our guests. Um. Yeah.




ETA: I'm really sorry, I posted my post in haste and it was probably inconsiderate and rude. It just seemed to hit a vein with me, since I ended up inviting random priests to our wedding from different parts of the world. One of them sent me a declined RSVP (it conflicted with some church thing) along with a card he made - and get this - the card was hand-made with a picture of a naked (yes, NAKED) woman statue.

 

[ilovethiswebsite]

all i have to say is that is simply AWESOME.

 

[lliang_chi]

Happy to contribute to the midweek diversion

I put my foot down for the Save the Dates with her and will do the same with the invitations. I have three hard and fast rules in order for someone to get an invite:

1) You must know their FULL NAME, as in what I''d put on the envelope.
2) You must know their spouse''s FULL NAME
3) You must have their address

If any of those criteria are missing, too bad, no invite. I think I can whittle down their randoms. Example my mom wants to invite my 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Grand Aunts (whom I met once in my life) and she probably has NO IDEA what their real names are (old school Chinese call aunts/uncles/kids numerically). My dad''s no better. He wants to invite my cousins whom he refers to as Number 1, Number 2, etc. So you can see a lot of the randoms fail at criteria 1. Yes!!!

Anyway, any practicing Buddhists here? I figured it was worth a shot...

 

[lliang_chi]

Date: 6/4/2009 12:12:48 AM
Author: kama_s
HAHAHAHAHHAHA, sorry, I have no advice for you but I just have to say that is just absolutely hilarious. FWIW, my mother wanted me to invite 6 priests to our wedding, and she also wanted ALL of them to do our ceremony and/or bless us infront of all our guests. Um. Yeah.





ETA: I''m really sorry, I posted my post in haste and it was probably inconsiderate and rude. It just seemed to hit a vein with me, since I ended up inviting random priests to our wedding from different parts of the world. One of them sent me a declined RSVP (it conflicted with some church thing) along with a card he made - and get this - the card was hand-made with a picture of a naked (yes, NAKED) woman statue.

Kama, no sweat, I didn''t take any offense. Glad to know I''m not the only one... I think our moms are related...

 

[MakingTheGrade]

This is why I''m kind of relieved that my wedding is in the US and my big, Chinese family is in China, lol. Much less drama.

 

[Haven]

This is a tough one!

Emily Post states that Buddhist clergy should be addressed as "Lama" (Tibetan, Mongolian) or "Roshi" (Zen). Is Sifu a variation of these titles? If so, I would address as follows:

Sifu Firstname Surname

It''s just a guess, though. Is their a monastery you can contact with your question?

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Date: 6/4/2009 12:24:35 AM
Author: lliang_chi
Happy to contribute to the midweek diversion

I put my foot down for the Save the Dates with her and will do the same with the invitations. I have three hard and fast rules in order for someone to get an invite:

1) You must know their FULL NAME, as in what I''d put on the envelope.
2) You must know their spouse''s FULL NAME
3) You must have their address

If any of those criteria are missing, too bad, no invite. I think I can whittle down their randoms. Example my mom wants to invite my 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Grand Aunts (whom I met once in my life) and she probably has NO IDEA what their real names are (old school Chinese call aunts/uncles/kids numerically). My dad''s no better. He wants to invite my cousins whom he refers to as Number 1, Number 2, etc. So you can see a lot of the randoms fail at criteria 1. Yes!!!

Anyway, any practicing Buddhists here? I figured it was worth a shot...

I''ll have to admit, this did make me laugh and remind me of "what not to do" when my daughters marry! I just wanted to say that your 3 criteria above are TOTALLY reasonable! Actually, I think it is also reasonable to only invite people that the couple have actually met before.

 

[Haven]

Date: 6/4/2009 10:22:46 AM
Author: Haven
This is a tough one!

Emily Post states that Buddhist clergy should be addressed as ''Lama'' (Tibetan, Mongolian) or ''Roshi'' (Zen). Is Sifu a variation of these titles? If so, I would address as follows:

Sifu Firstname Surname

It''s just a guess, though. Is their a monastery you can contact with your question?

How embarrassing. I can no longer edit the post, but I do wish I could change this to "there."
Ugh.

 

[lliang_chi]

Haven, don''t feel embarrassed. I want to thank you for getting back to me with Ms. Post''s suggestion. There''s Buddhist temple here in Chicago close to one of my friends. Next time I''m visiting, I''ll see if there''s someone I can ask.

As far as I can figure, Sifu just means master/teacher. I don''t know anything about the "hierarchy" of Buddhist clergy so I don''t know what I''ll call her.

Ha, ha, I should just make up titles. Just kidding....

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Any chance you can write the name in Chinese? I think in Chinese it''s "Lastname" Sifu, at least, that''s how we address them. Don''t know if it''s different for wedding etiquette though, lol.