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
bhūta
Wylie: ’byung po
Tibetan: འབྱུང་པོ།
Sanskrit: bhūta
This term in its broadest sense can refer to any being, whether human, animal, or nonhuman. However, it is often used to refer to a specific class of nonhuman beings, especially when bhūtas are mentioned alongside rākṣasas, piśācas, or pretas. In common with these other kinds of nonhumans, bhūtas are usually depicted with unattractive and misshapen bodies. Like several other classes of nonhuman beings, bhūtas take spontaneous birth. As their leader is traditionally regarded to be Rudra-Śiva (also known by the name Bhūta), with whom they haunt dangerous and wild places, bhūtas are especially prominent in Śaivism, where large sections of certain tantras concentrate on them.
g.2
Dānaśīla
Wylie: dA na shI la
Tibetan: དཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལ།
Sanskrit: dānaśīla
An Indian paṇḍita resident in Tibet during the late eighth and early ninth centuries.
g.3
dhāraṇī
Wylie: gzungs
Tibetan: གཟུངས།
Sanskrit: dhāraṇī
An incantation, spell, or formula, that “holds” or allows to be “retained” (Skt. √dhṛ) a particular meaning, point of realization, or protective power, and is expounded by a realized being so that it may be used to attain mundane and supramundane goals. In the case of many texts (like the present one) in which dhāraṇīs are expounded, the term dhāraṇī is also used to designate the text itself.
g.4
Five Royal Sūtras
Wylie: rgyal po mdo lnga
Tibetan: རྒྱལ་པོ་མདོ་ལྔ།
See i.3 and n.2.
g.5
graha
Wylie: gdon
Tibetan: གདོན།
Sanskrit: graha
A type of evil spirit that exerts a harmful influence on the human body and mind. Grahas are closely associated with the planets and other astronomical bodies.
g.6
Jinamitra
Wylie: dzi na mi tra
Tibetan: ཛི་ན་མི་ཏྲ།
Sanskrit: jinamitra
An Indian Kashmiri paṇḍita who was resident in Tibet during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. He worked with several Tibetan translators on the translation of several sūtras. He is also the author of the Nyāyabindupiṇḍārtha (Toh 4233), which is contained in the Tengyur (Tib. bstan ’gyur) collection.
g.7
Ten Royal Sūtras
Wylie: rgyal po mdo bcu
Tibetan: རྒྱལ་པོ་མདོ་བཅུ།
See i.3 and n.2.
g.8
Vajra Conqueror
Wylie: rdo rje rnam par ’joms pa
Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་པ།
Sanskrit: vajravidāraṇa
A Buddhist deity, the embodiment of the eponymous dhāraṇī revealed in The Dhāraṇī “Vajra Conqueror” and a form of the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi.
g.9
Vajrapāṇi
Wylie: lag na rdo rje
Tibetan: ལག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ།
Sanskrit: vajrapāṇi
A Buddhist bodhisattva and protective yakṣa whose name can be translated “vajra-in-hand.”
g.10
Yeshé Dé
Wylie: ye shes sde
Tibetan: ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ།
Yeshé Dé (late eighth to early ninth century) was the most prolific translator of sūtras into Tibetan. Altogether he is credited with the translation of more than one hundred sixty sūtra translations and more than one hundred additional translations, mostly on tantric topics. In spite of Yeshé Dé’s great importance for the propagation of Buddhism in Tibet during the imperial era, only a few biographical details about this figure are known. Later sources describe him as a student of the Indian teacher Padmasambhava, and he is also credited with teaching both sūtra and tantra widely to students of his own. He was also known as Nanam Yeshé Dé, from the Nanam (sna nam) clan.