Warrior monk

{{Short description|Monk who is also a warrior}}

{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}

File:Nara Houshi.jpg

File:Basawan. Battle of rival ascetics. Akbarnama, ca. 1590, V&A Museum.jpg provoked the creation of a military order of Hindu ascetics in India.]]

A warrior monk is a concept found in various cultures of a person who combines aspects of being a monk, such as deep religious devotion and an ascetic lifestyle, with being a warrior, trained to engage in violent conflict.{{Cite web |last=Peters |first=Ralph |date=2010-07-03 |title=The 'warrior monk' |url=https://nypost.com/2010/07/13/the-warrior-monk/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=New York Post}}

Examples include:

• Sant Sipahi is a Sikh ideology, inspired by the lives of Sikh gurus, of a saint soldier who would adhere one's life in strict discipline both in mind and body.
• Sōhei, a type of Japanese warrior.{{cite book|author=Hitomi Tonomura|title=Community and Commerce in Late Medieval Japan: Corporate Villages of Tokuchin-ho|url=https://archive.org/details/communitycommerc0000tono|url-access=registration|date=1 January 1992|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-6614-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/communitycommerc0000tono/page/216 216]–}}
• Righteous armies, Korean guerilla fighters, including monks
• Knights Templar, Knights Hospitaller and Teutonic Knights, warriors during the Crusades.
• Shaolin Monastery, a Chinese monastery renowned for monks who were experts in the martial arts.
• Naga Sadhus, a militaristic sect of arms-bearing Hindu sannyasi.

Nowadays within certain parts of the legal world, legal practitioners who publish articles in law reviews or teach at law schools in addition to their full-time legal practice are occasionally referred to as warrior monks.

In fiction:

• The description of the ideal soldier in the manual of the First Earth Battalion.
• The Jedi Order, a fictional monastic organization in the Star Wars epic space opera franchise
• The Adeptus Astartes, Space Marines, are genetically altered super soldiers who serve the Imperium of Mankind in the Warhammer 40,000 universe{{Citation needed|date=March 2018}} alongside the Adepta Sororitas, Sisters of Battle, who are soldier-nuns serving directly under the command of the Imperium's church.