Page "Coming of age" Paragraph 5

After living the novitiate monastic life for some time, the boy, now considered to have " come of age ," will either take higher ordination as a fully ordained monk ( a bhikkhu ) or will ( more often ) return to lay life.

In Southeast Asian countries, where most pracitioners of Theravada Buddhism reside, women will often refuse to marry a man who has not ordained temporarily as a Samanera in this way at some point in his life.

Men who have completed this Samanera ordination and have returned to lay life are considered primed for adult married life and are described in the Thai language and the Khmer language by terms which roughly translate as " cooked ," " finished ," or " cooled off " in English, as in meal preparation / consumption.

Thus, one's monastic training is seen to have prepared one properly for familial, social, and civic duty and / or one's passions and unruliness of the boy are seen to have " cooled down " enough for him to be of use to a woman as a proper man.