Glossary

Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language

This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.

This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.

This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.

The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.

This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.

This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.

This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.

g.1
Amitāyus
Wylie: tshe dpag med
Tibetan: ཚེ་དཔག་མེད།
Sanskrit: amitāyus
The buddha in the western realm of Sukhāvatī, also known as Amitābha.
g.2
Bhadraśrī
Wylie: bzang po’i dpal
Tibetan: བཟང་པོའི་དཔལ།
Sanskrit: bhadraśrī
Bhadraśrī (Excellent Glory) is a buddha who inhabits the buddhafield Padmaśrī.
g.3
buddhafield
Wylie: sangs rgyas kyi zhing
Tibetan: སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞིང་།
Sanskrit: buddhakṣetra
A buddhafield is the particular world system over which a specific buddha presides. There are innumerable such fields in Mahāyāna Buddhist cosmology.
g.4
Candrabuddhi
Wylie: zla ba’i blo gros
Tibetan: ཟླ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས།
Sanskrit: candrabuddhi
Candrabuddhi (Moon-Like Intellect) is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield. In Toh 44-37 his buddhafield is named Color of the Mirror Disk, and in Toh 104 it is named Ādarśa­maṇḍala­cakra­nirghoṣā.
g.5
Dharmadhvaja
Wylie: chos kyi rgyal mtshan
Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
Sanskrit: dharmadhvaja
Dharmadhvaja (Dharma Banner) is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield. This buddhafield is specifically said to be Virajā (Dustless) in Toh 44-37 and Toh 104.
g.6
Flower Body Blooming from the Light of the Dharma
Wylie: chos kyi ’od zer me tog rab tu rgyas pa’i sku
Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་འོད་ཟེར་མེ་ཏོག་རབ་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པའི་སྐུ།
Flower Body Blooming from the Light of the Dharma is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield. Buddhas with similar names are said to inhabit the buddhafield Duratikramā (Difficult to Transcend) (Tib. ’da’ bar dka’ ba) in Toh 44-37 and Toh 104.
g.7
King of the Inconceivable
Wylie: bsam gyis mi khyab pa’i rgyal po
Tibetan: བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
Sanskrit: acintyarāja
A bodhisattva who is the primary speaker in Toh 268.
g.8
King of Wisdom Light
Wylie: ye shes ’od zer rgyal po
Tibetan: ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་ཟེར་རྒྱལ་པོ།
King of Wisdom Light is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield.
g.9
Lotus Body Blooming from Dense Light Rays
Wylie: ’od zer shin tu stug po pad ma rab tu rgyas pa’i sku
Tibetan: འོད་ཟེར་ཤིན་ཏུ་སྟུག་པོ་པད་མ་རབ་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པའི་སྐུ།
Lotus Body Blooming from Dense Light Rays is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield. Buddhas with similar names are said to inhabit the buddhafield Avaivartika­cakra­nirghoṣā in Toh 44-37 and Toh 104.
g.10
Magadha
Wylie: ma ga d+hA
Tibetan: མ་ག་དྷཱ།
Sanskrit: magadha
An ancient Indian kingdom that lay to the south of the Ganges River in what today is the state of Bihar. Magadha was the largest of the sixteen “great states” (mahājanapada) that flourished between the sixth and third centuries ʙᴄᴇ in northern India. During the life of the Buddha Śākyamuni, it was ruled by King Bimbisāra and later by Bimbisāra's son, Ajātaśatru. Its capital was initially Rājagṛha (modern-day Rajgir) but was later moved to Pāṭaliputra (modern-day Patna). Over the centuries, with the expansion of the Magadha’s might, it became the capital of the vast Mauryan empire and seat of the great King Aśoka.This region is home to many of the most important Buddhist sites, including Bodh Gayā, where the Buddha attained awakening; Vulture Peak (Gṛdhra­kūṭa), where the Buddha bestowed many well-known Mahāyāna sūtras; and the Buddhist university of Nālandā that flourished between the fifth and twelfth centuries ᴄᴇ, among many others.
g.11
Padmaśrī
Wylie: pad ma’i dpal
Tibetan: པད་མའི་དཔལ།
Sanskrit: padmaśrī
Padmaśrī (Lotus Glory) is a buddhafield inhabited by the Buddha Bhadraśrī.
g.12
Sahā world
Wylie: mi mjed
Tibetan: མི་མཇེད།
Sanskrit: sahā
The name for our world system, the universe of a thousand million worlds, or trichiliocosm, in which the four-continent world is located. Each trichiliocosm is ruled by a god Brahmā; thus, in this context, he bears the title of Sahāṃpati, Lord of Sahā. The world system of Sahā, or Sahālokadhātu, is also described as the buddhafield of the Buddha Śākyamuni where he teaches the Dharma to beings. The name Sahā possibly derives from the Sanskrit √sah, “to bear, endure, or withstand.” It is often interpreted as alluding to the inhabitants of this world being able to endure the suffering they encounter. The Tibetan translation, mi mjed, follows along the same lines. It literally means “not painful,” in the sense that beings here are able to bear the suffering they experience.
g.13
Samantabhadra
Wylie: kun tu bzang po
Tibetan: ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ།
Sanskrit: samantabhadra
Samantabhadra (Entirely Excellent) is one of the eight principal bodhisattvas. He is known for embodying the conduct of bodhisattvas through his vast aspirations, offerings, and deeds for the benefit of beings.
g.14
seat of awakening
Wylie: byang chub kyi snying po
Tibetan: བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ།
Sanskrit: bodhimaṇḍa
The exact place where every buddha in this world will manifest the attainment of buddhahood. Specifically, this is the place beneath the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gayā.
g.15
Siṃha
Wylie: seng ge
Tibetan: སེང་གེ
Sanskrit: siṃha
Siṃha (Lion) is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield. This buddhafield is specifically said to be Excellent Lamp (Tib. sgron ma bzang po) in Toh 44-37 and Pradīpā in Toh 104.
g.16
Sukhāvatī
Wylie: bde ba can
Tibetan: བདེ་བ་ཅན།
Sanskrit: sukhāvatī
Sukhāvatī (Blissful) is the buddhafield to the west inhabited by the Buddha Amitāyus, who is also known as Amitābha. It is classically described in The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī ( Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra).
g.17
Vairocana
Wylie: rnam par snang mdzad
Tibetan: རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད།
Sanskrit: vairocana
Vairocana is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield. This buddhafield is specifically said to be Suprabhā in Toh 44-37 and Toh 104. He also appears in Toh 44-37 with the name Vairocanagarbha.
g.18
Vajrapramardin
Wylie: rdo rje rab tu ’joms pa
Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ།
Sanskrit: vajrapramardin
Vajrapramardin (Vajra Vanquisher) is a buddha who inhabits a buddhafield. This buddhafield is specifically said to be Kaṣāyadhvajā in Toh 44-37 and Toh 104. In Toh 104 he is named Vajrasārapramardin (Vajra Essence Vanquisher).