It is considered a highly meritorious act for a lay devotee to provide sadhus with food or other necessaries.

In the beginning, Venerable Yung Guang founded the small Manila Buddhist Center in a premises offered by lay devotees.

In Pali the word for a male lay devotee is Upasaka.

Anathapindika, is referenced for instance in AN 1.14.249 as "the householder Sudatta, the foremost lay devotee."

The purchase of Fairlight was financed largely using a single legacy from a lay devotee.

In modern times they have a connotation of dedicated piety that is best suggested by terms such as "lay devotee" or "devout lay follower."

Thero started a small place at Nadimala, Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, with a few lay devotees.

However, as it was considered an act of merit not only to feed a monk but also to shelter him, sumptuous monasteries were created by rich lay devotees (Mitra 1971).

The emergence of Vithoba was concurrent with the rise of a "new type of lay devotee", the Varkari.

In terms of the daily practice of Buddhist laity, a lay devotee daily recites the Five Precepts which include: