Glossary

Madhyamaka is a philosophical school within Mahayana Buddhism, usually associated with the thinker Nagarjuna (second–third century CE). Madhyamaka proposes a “middle way” between positivism (things exist) and nihilism (nothing exists), arguing that things exist provisionally insofar as we experience them, but are empty of inherent, enduring nature. In this construction, the phenomenal world and enlightenment are perceptual aspects of the same reality. All Tibetan Buddhist traditions study Madhyamaka philosophy, but it forms the central part of the monastic curriculum of Geluk tradition.

Mahabala is a wrathful deity in Vajrayana Buddhism. Often understood as an emanation of Buddha Amitabha, Mahabala is depicted as a red round-bellied man. Mahabala can also sometimes be the name of a dakini, or a minor female deity in Hinduism.

The Mahabodhi Temple is a temple at Bodhgaya, the site of the Buddha Shakyamuni’s awakening or enlightenment. The Mahabodhi temple is built near the Bodhi Tree under which Shakyamuni sat, marking that spot, known as the “diamond throne” (Skt. vajrasana) to commemorate his Awakening and its site. The peaked form of the temple dates from the Gupta period (fourth to sixth century CE), although the structure has been repaired and altered many times over the centuries. The Mahabodhi Temple is the most important Buddhist shrine and pilgrimage site. Large replicas, or representations of the Mahabodhi Temple have been built around the world and pilgrims took its small models to their home countries as souvenirs.

In Hinduism, Mahadevi is the great goddess, the ultimate form of shakti, or the divine female energy. Worshippers of Mahadevi, called “shaktas,” consider her a creator deity equivalent to “Brahman,” or the fundamental basis of reality. Different Hindu traditions consider Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, Parvati, Sarasvati, and all other Hindu goddesses to be aspects of Mahadevi.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, Mahakala is one of the eight great wrathful dharma protectors, a remover of obstacles, both internal and external. Mahakala has many forms, but is generally depicted as a fierce deity with a large belly, dark blue or black in color. One especially important form is the Panjaranatha Mahakala, “Lord of the [Bone] Pavilion,” who was a special protector of the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and its imperial Mongol patrons. Forms of Mahakala also appear in Hinduism, where the deity is associated with Bhairava.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, Mahamudra refers to an awakened state that is non-conceptual and contains all phenomena of samsara and nirvana, and also to a path leading to this awareness through meditation. Mahamudra teachings are traced back to the great Indian mahasiddhas, Maitripa, Tilopa, and Naropa, who transmitted the teachings to Tibetan masters, including Marpa, the translator, and Milarepa, the poet-yogi who lived a famously unconventional life. The transmission lineage depicting these masters often occupies upper registers of Tibetan thangkas. Mahamudra is one of the two central teachings (along with the Six Dharmas of Naropa) in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and other Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

Maharaja is an Indian title for a powerful ruler.

In tantric Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism, a “siddha” is one who has mastered “siddhis,” or the magical powers that come with yogic practice. The “Great Siddhas” (mahasiddhas) were a semi-mythical group of tantric masters, men and women, who lived in medieval India. They were known for their extraordinary meditative powers, religious poetry, and their transgressive lifestyles, including dwelling in charnel grounds, drinking alcohol, fighting, and having sex. Many Himalayan Vajrayana traditions trace their initiation lineages back to the Mahasiddhas. Depictions of sets of eight, eighty-one, or eighty-four Mahasiddhas are a popular subject in Himalayan art.

Mahayana is a Buddhist movement, which formed in India around the first century CE. Mahayana followers articulated their goal of achieving buddhahood, or awakening, as the means to help all living beings, which is known as bodhicitta. Mahayana sutras such as Prajnaparamita, Avatamsaka, The Lotus Sutra, and others represent this goal in their narratives and explain how to reach it in their philosophical propositions. These texts introduced the idea of infinite buddhas in infinite intersecting universes and powerful bodhisattvas with the ability to intercede in human affairs. Mahayana philosophy emphasizes the teachings on emptiness, according to the Madhyamaka school and the ethical practices in the context of the bodhicitta. In Himalayan Buddhist traditions, Mahayana is considered the foundation for Vajrayana practices. Along with Theravada and Vajrayana it comprises the Three Vehicles of Buddhist paths. Mahayana teachings are also practiced today in China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.

Buddhists believe that the universe expands and contracts over endless eons or “kalpas.” Buddhas appear at pre-set times in these eons. The Buddha of our era was Shakyamuni, and the next Buddha to appear will be Maitreya, whose coming will usher in an age of peace. Images of Maitreya are very popular in Buddhist art, either as part of a trinity of Buddhas of the Three Times, or as individual sculptures and paintings often depicting Maitreya standing. Maitreya can be represented both as a bodhisattva and as a buddha.

In Indic mythology, a makara is a mythical crocodile-like creature that lives in rivers and lakes and is generally associated with water. In Himalayan art, certain deities are depicted as riding makaras. More commonly, makaras appear as decorative motifs on either side of gateways, or around the torana. In Newar art of the Kathmandu Valley they represent a rain cloud and appear as aquatic creatures with teeth and a curling elephant trunk-like snout.

The Malla dynasty ruled the Kathmandu Valley in central Nepal from the early thirteenth century until 1769. For most of this period, there was not one single Malla ruler; rather, different branches of the Malla family formed a Newar-speaking noble class that ruled the three city-states of Kathmandu, Bakhtapur, and Patan. Due to the cultural competition between these cities and courts, the Malla period is remembered as a great age of Hindu and Buddhist art and architecture in Nepal. The Malla period came to an end when the Gorkha ruler Prithvi Narayan Shah (1723–1775) conquered the area of present-day Nepal. (The Malla dynasty is not to be confused with the Khasa Malla.)

Manchus are an ethnic group originating in northeast Asia, roughly the area known as Manchuria. Historically known as Jurchens, in 1635 the ruler Hong Taiji (1592–1643) proclaimed the Qing Dynasty and officially changed the ethnic group’s name to “Manchu.” Qing emperors were said to be emanations of the bodhisattva Manjushri, and the name “Manchu” may relate to this. The Manchus formed the military aristocracy of this empire, which came to rule most of China, Mongolia, Tibet, and Eastern Central Asia until 1912. Many Manchus, including Qing emperors, had close political and spiritual relationships with Tibetan and Mongol lamas. Today the Manchus remain a major ethnic group within China, although very few people now speak the Manchu language.

In Vajrayana Buddhism or Bon, a mandala refers to a cosmic abode of a deity, usually depicted as a diagram of a circle with an inscribed square that represents the deity enthroned in their palace, surrounded by members of their retinue. Mandalas can be painted, three-dimensional models, architectural structures, such as temples or stupas, or composed as arrangements of images within a temple. The instructions for creating and visualizing mandalas are usually found in ritual texts, such as tantras and sadhanas. Mandalas can be used in initiation ceremonies, visualized by a practitioner as part of deity yoga, consecrated and used to represent the divine presence within ritual space, offered to the deities as representations of the entire universe. A similar concept in Hinduism is a yantra.

Manipas, or manips, are wandering storytellers who performed at pilgrimage sites during religious festivals all over Himalayan regions. In Bhutan, a manipa (as they are known in Bhutan) is a lay priest who recites mantras and other Buddhist texts, and gives popular teachings using miniature portable shrines called Tashi Gomang (The Auspicious Many Doors), and narrative hanging scroll paintings (thangka) as working images to focus their presentations. Very few manipas are active today in Bhutan, but nuns in Tibetan communities of Nepal revived and continue the manipa tradition, which has declined in other areas.

Manjushri is one of the most important bodhisattvas in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Considered the embodiment of wisdom, Manjushri is often recognized by his attributes: a sword which cuts through ignorance and a book, the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) Sutra. Emanations of Manjushri can also be recognized by these same attributes. Another important Chinese iconographic tradition depicts a youthful Manjushri riding on a lion. This form is associated with Manjushri’s abode on earth, Mount Wutai in China, one of the few Buddhist sites in China visited by Tibetan and Mongol pilgrims among others from all over Asia. Manjushri was seen as the protector deity of China, and the Manchu emperors of the Qing Dynasty who claimed to be emanations of Manjushri emphasized/promoted this association.

In Hinduism and Buddhism, mantras are short syllables or phrases that are thought to have power. Mantras may be chanted by devotees as part of daily practice, or pronounced during rituals to invoke the deity’s power. In tantric Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism, practitioners perform meditative deity-yoga by first visualizing “root” or “seed” syllables, and then generating the yidam deities out of these mantras during the process known as visualization.

In Buddhism, Mara is the demon who was defeated by Buddha Shakyamuni beneath the bodhi tree prior to his enlightenment. Mara is understood as a literal demon, as death, and also as an embodiment of negative forces of desire, hatred and other emotions, and a metaphor of the conditioned existence that leads to death and rebirth in an endless cycle.

Marichi is a deity in Mahayana and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, associated with the light of dawn, victory, and protection. Marichi has many forms, both peaceful and wrathful. She is often depicted having a yellow or red body, riding on a boar or a chariot pulled by pigs.

In Hinduism, the matrikas are a group of fierce goddesses, each of whom is associated with a mantra seed syllable. These goddesses are often thought of as the female energies (Skt. shakti) of particular male gods. There are usually said to be seven matrikas, corresponding to the seven stars of the Pleiades. In Nepal there are understood to be eight matrikas: Brahmani, Vaishnavi, Maheshwari, Indrani, Kaumari, Varahi, Chamunda, and Mahalakshmi.

Mayadevi, or just Maya, was the mother of Siddhartha Gautama, or the Buddha Shakyamuni. According to the stories of the Buddha’s life, Mayadevi conceived the Buddha after a prophetic dream, and gave birth to him through her side in a garden. Seven days later she passed away, and was reborn in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods. After awakening, the Buddha traveled to that heaven to share with her his realization and teaching, and then came down on to the human world.

Meditation is a central practice of many Asian religious traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Bon, and Daoism. There are many forms of meditation. One kind of meditation involves clearing the mind, focusing on breathing, and generating feelings of compassion towards all living beings. Other types of meditation involve concentrating on and internalizing philosophical concepts. In Vajrayana Buddhism, an important type of meditation practice is visualization, such as deity-yoga, in which the meditator visualizes themselves becoming the deity, aspiring to take on their enlightened qualities while performing ritual activities.

Menla artistic tradition was founded by Menla Dondrup, an artist who worked in central Tibet during the fifteenth century. It is one of two new distinctively Tibetan artistic traditions which arose at this time, the Menla and Khyentse traditions, named after Tibetan artists. These painting styles (Menri and Khyenri) are known for adopting Chinese landscape into their compositions. Menri painting is known to excel in its depiction of peaceful deities. While paintings by Menla Dondrup’s own hand have yet to be reliably identified, a handbook of iconometry, The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, is attributed to him. The New Menri Style was established by the artist Choying Gyatso (active ca.1640s–1660s) in the court of the Fourth Panchen Lama. Choying Gyatso’s compositions are well known through woodblock prints, characterized by dynamically postured figures set in dramatic Chinese-inspired landscapes.

In Buddhism, merit is accumulated positive karma, or positive actions, that lead to positive results, such as better rebirths. Buddhists gain merit by reciting mantras, donating to monasteries and those in need, performing pilgrimages, commissioning artworks, reproducing and reciting Buddhist texts, and other deeds with good intentions. It is believed that merit can also be transferred to others through rituals performed to gain merit for deceased family members help them achieve a better rebirth. Merit making is an important motivation for positive ritual action, and is a prerequisite for success of religious and even secular activity.

The Ming dynasty was a Chinese state that existed from 1368 to 1644 CE. The Ming founder, Zhu Yuanzhang (1328–1398), led an army that defeated the Yuan dynasty of the Mongol Empire and restored ethnic Chinese rule in China. Unlike the Mongols before them or the Qing dynasty after them the Ming never seriously attempted to rule the Tibetan regions, preferring instead to manage border affairs by granting titles and trading rights to friendly Tibetan monks and secular leaders. Nevertheless, several early Ming emperors had close personal relations with Tibetan lamas, and relations of trade and cultural interchange flourished between Chinese and Tibetan regions.

A monastery is a place where monks live, study, and perform ritual. It includes temples and other structures. Monasteries are central to Buddhism, and are also important in Bon, Hinduism, and Daoism. In Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian areas, some monasteries are enormous, wealthy, and powerful institutions, with branches of satellite monasteries forming networks across regions, often with thousands of monks, many decorated chapels, and huge holdings of land. Other monasteries, called hermitages, can be extremely simple, little more than a cave where hermits meditate. Generally, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery will have an assembly hall, several temples (Tib. lhakhang) for worship of specific deities, a protector chapel, as well as monks’ accommodations. A related institution in Newar Buddhism are the baha and bahi.

The Mongol Empire (ca 1206–1368) was the largest contiguous empire in world history, founded by Chinggis Khan (1162–1227), which at its height controlled most of Eurasia, from the Korean peninsula to Central Europe. The Mongols conquered the Tanguts in 1227 and absorbed Tibetan regions in the 1240s, granting power over central Tibet to the Sakya Buddhist hierarchs in what is characterized as a priest-patron relationship. In 1260, Qubilai Khan declared himself Great Khan, which was contested, fracturing the Mongol Empire into four independent regimes. Qubilai remained the ruler of most of Asia establishing the Yuan dynasty. Mongol rulers of Yuan, and the first six rulers the Ilkhanate in the Middle East, starting with its founder Hülegü, were also patrons of Tibetan Buddhism.

The monsoon is the yearly rain season in the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas. Depending on the area, the monsoon lasts roughly from midsummer to late autumn. Monsoon is the main source of water for the Kathmandu Valley and central to agrarian and ritual life of the Newars.

In Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain cosmologies Mount Meru is a mountain at the center of the world, the peaks of which contain heavens and divine realms. It is surrounded by many lakes, rings of mountains, and further out, the great ocean and four continents. Humans live on a southern continent called Jampudvipa. Buddhists interpret Jampudvipa corresponding to India, and Mount Meru is roughly equivalent to the Himalayas. Many Buddhists and Hindus identify Meru with Mount Kailash, a peak in western Tibet, as the focus of pilgrimage.

Mount Potalaka is a semi-mythical mountain in southern India, said to be the abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara on earth. Many sacred sites have been named after this mountain, including the Potala Palace of the Dalai Lamas (said to be emanations of Avalokiteshvara).

In many Himalayan and Inner Asian cultures some mountains and other natural forces are personified as gods, and mountains are places where gods reside. Tibetans understand some mountains to be mandala-palaces of Bon or Buddhist deities. Other mountains are the homes of fierce warrior-gods who have been tamed and bound by oath to protect Buddhism and the land, for instance Kula Khari, who have the power to harm or grant prosperity to local communities.

In Hinduism and Buddhism, mudras are ritual hand gestures made by deities, Buddhas, and other sacred figures. These hand gestures are important and relatively standardized parts of deities’ iconographies. Mudras are also performed by practitioners during rituals, allowing them to take on the bodily attributes of the deities.

In the Mongol Empire, households were organized into thousands (chiliarchies) and ten-thousands (myriarchies). These social groupings would then be required to provide units of warriors for the Mongol armies.