In the Mandaean diaspora, shgandas, or alternatively learned laymen called yalufa, often perform minor priestly roles due to shortages of tarmida and ganzibra priests abroad.[3]: 338
Tarmida initiates or novices (šualia) have often been trained as shgandas when they were children. Initiates may or may not be married, although typically they are not yet married.[2]
During tarmida initiation ceremonies, shgandas, who represent emissaries from the World of Light, also help perform the rituals, many of which are held in a specially constructed priest initiation hut (škinta) and also a nearby temporary reed hut (andiruna).[2]
^Drower, E. S. 1960. The Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
^ abcBuckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2002). The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-515385-5. OCLC65198443.
^Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2010). The great stem of souls: reconstructing Mandaean history. Piscataway, N.J: Gorgias Press. ISBN978-1-59333-621-9.