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
dhāraṇī
Wylie: gzungs
Tibetan: གཟུངས།
Sanskrit: dhāraṇī AD
The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula—that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulas.
g.2
graha
Wylie: gdon
Tibetan: གདོན།
Sanskrit: graha AD
A type of malevolent spirit that is understood to cause illness and harm by a sort of possession, through “grasping” or “taking hold of” the person that the spirit afflicts.
g.3
malevolent female spirits
Wylie: phra men ma
Tibetan: ཕྲ་མེན་མ།
Sanskrit: ḍākinī AD
The term phra men ma is one of the two translations of the word ḍākinī found in canonical works. In this case—as in many of the cases where phra men ma rather than the other Tibetan translation of ḍākinī, mkha’ ’gro ma, is employed—it refers to a class of malevolent female spirits. The higher tantras of the Nyingma tradition feature phra men (ma) as a class of protective deities on the periphery of the maṇḍala of wrathful deities in the Shitro (zhi khro) maṇḍala of peaceful and wrathful deities. They have female bodies, animal heads, and often appear as a set of eight.
g.4
Three Jewels
Wylie: dkon mchog gsum
Tibetan: དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ།
Sanskrit: triratna AD
The Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—the three objects of Buddhist refuge. In the Tibetan rendering, “the three rare and supreme ones.”
g.5
Vajrakumāra
Wylie: rdo rje gzhon nu
Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་གཞོན་ནུ།
Sanskrit: vajrakumāra AD
“The Youthful Vajra.” It is unclear who the referent of this name is in this text, but given the title of the work, it could perhaps be understood as an epithet of Vajrapāṇi, albeit not a common one. Vajrakumāra is also, at least in later Tibetan literature, quite commonly an epithet of Vajrakīlaya.
g.6
Vajrapāṇi
Wylie: phyag na rdo rje
Tibetan: ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ།
Sanskrit: vajrapāṇi AD
Vajrapāṇi means “Wielder of the Vajra.” In the Pali canon, he appears as a yakṣa guardian in the retinue of the Buddha. In the Mahāyāna scriptures he is a bodhisattva and one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha.” In the tantras, he is also regarded as an important Buddhist deity and instrumental in the transmission of tantric scriptures.
g.7
vidyāmantra
Wylie: rig sngags
Tibetan: རིག་སྔགས།
Sanskrit: vidyāmantra AD
A type of mantra.
g.8
yakṣa
Wylie: gnod sbyin
Tibetan: གནོད་སྦྱིན།
Sanskrit: yakṣa AD
A class of nonhuman beings who inhabit forests, mountainous areas, and other natural spaces, or serve as guardians of villages and towns, and may be propitiated for health, wealth, protection, and other boons, or controlled through magic. According to tradition, their homeland is in the north, where they live under the rule of the Great King Vaiśravaṇa. Several members of this class have been deified as gods of wealth (these include the just-mentioned Vaiśravaṇa) or as bodhisattva generals of yakṣa armies, and have entered the Buddhist pantheon in a variety of forms, including, in tantric Buddhism, those of wrathful deities.