Glossary

Takkiraja is a deity in Vajrayana Buddhism. Takkiraja is usually depicted as a red wrathful deity holding a hook in one hand and a noose in the other, often united with a consort.

The Tang dynasty was a state that ruled in east Asia between 618 and 907 CE, with its capital at modern Xi’an. The Tang dynasty was militarily expansive, conquering much of eastern Central Asia before an internal rebellion that began in 755 broke its power. The Tang dynasty also fought major wars and conducted several treaties with the Tibetan Empire. The Tang dynasty was an important time in the history of Buddhism, when many Indian and Central Asian monks traveled to China to teach, while Chinese and Korean monks traveled to India for pilgrimage and study, or taught Chinese Buddhist doctrines in Tibet. Many paintings and documents from the Tang dynasty and immediately afterwards are preserved at Dunhuang.

The Tanguts were an ethnic group in medieval East-Central Asia, who called themselves Minyak and spoke a language distantly related to Tibetan. Between 1038 and 1227 CE the Tanguts ruled a state in what is now the Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai. This state took the Chinese dynastic name of Xia, also called Xixia “Western Xia.” The Tangut-Xixia emperors were major patrons of Buddhism, inviting both Chinese and Tibetan monks to teach in the capital, and instituting major Buddhist translation and printing projects in three languages. The Tangut state was destroyed by the armies of Chinggis Khan, leading to their absorption into the Mongol Empire, where many Tanguts served as officials.

Tantra was a religious movement in India around the fifth to seventh centuries, and its practices are part of Buddhism and Hinduism. The word tantra also refers to texts which transmit tantric practices. In Buddhism, tantra is also called Vajrayana, “The Vajra Vehicle.” Tantric ritual and art are characterized by deity yoga, mandalas, mantras, abhisheka (initiation), wrathful deities, and ritual sexual union. In Hinduism, tantrism was often associated with the worship of Shiva and various goddesses (shakti). A practitioner of tantra is called a “tantrika.” Tantra is also a genre of texts that have been variously categorized. Most common is the division of tantras into four categories: Kriya Tantra, Charya Tantra, Yoga Tantra, and Highest Yoga Tantra.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, deities are sometimes portrayed as male and female couples in sexual embrace, called yab-yum (Tib. “Father and Mother”) images. They represent symbolic union of wisdom (female) with active compassion, or method (male), the two necessary elements for achieving awakening. As yidam in Vajrayana and as gods in tantric Hinduism, practitioners visualize these images in meditative deity-yoga, while manipulating the winds, channels, and chakras of the inner “subtle body.” More rarely, tantric union is practiced physically between a yogin and a consort, sometimes as part of an abhisheka initiation.

Tara is an important deity in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Sometimes considered an emanation or consort of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Tara is known as a savioress who rescues those in peril. Tara has many different peaceful and wrathful forms, but she is often depicted as either green or white. The green form is associated with her limitless activity, and white with granting a long life. The green and white Taras are also associated with, respectively, the Nepalese princess Bhrikuti and the Chinese princess Wencheng, semi-legendary wives of the Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo (d. 649 CE), himself said to be an emanation of Avalokiteshvara. In one popular story Tara is said to have vowed to always appear in female form.

The Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism holds that gurus of the past like Padmasambhava concealed texts, objects, and even hidden lands (Tib. beyul) throughout the Himalayan landscape, meant for later generations to discover at the time the teachings are needed. Tantric practitioners and yogis who discover these treasures are called terton, or “treasure revealers.” Treasure revealers can also uncover “mind-treasures,” revealed to them by deities or lineage masters in dreams and visions. There are treasure-revealers in the Bon tradition as well.

The Thakuri Period was an era of Nepalese history that lasted roughly from the ninth to the twelfth centuries CE. “Thakuri” is a term of respect given to historical kings in much later chronicles, not the name of a governing dynasty or ethnic group. For this reason some scholars prefer the terms the “post-Licchavi” or “transitional” period. Very few secular records survive from this period, and little is known about its political history. Nevertheless, the many Buddhist and Hindu pothi manuscripts and bronze statues attest to Nepal’s continued cultural output. During the Thakuri Period, Vajrayana teachings rose to dominance among Buddhists in the Kathmandu Valley.

A thangka is a Tibetan hanging scroll, usually painted on cotton, and then mounted in a silk brocade mount. Thangkas can also be textiles woven or assembled in the appliqué technique. Thangkas are often kept rolled up around a wooden dowel affixed to the bottom end of the silk mounting, which also helps keep the scroll flat when hung. Almost all thangkas show religious subjects. Similar paintings produced in Nepal are called “paubha.”

In Mahayana Buddhism, every buddha is thought to have three bodies. The dharma body (dharmakaya) is the primordial, empty, true nature of all buddhas. The enjoyment body (sambhogakaya) is the buddha as he exists in his exalted pure realm and mandala, surrounded by bodhisattvas. In images, these bodies can be recognized by their jewel ornaments and crown (like Amitayus). The emanation bodies (nirmanakaya) are the innumerable forms or manifestations of the buddhas who appear in the world or on earth in order to teach sentient beings the path to freedom from suffering. In images, emanation bodies can often be recognized by their monk’s robes (like Amitabha).

Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists hold that Buddha Shakyamuni gave three main sets of teachings during his career on earth, poetically described as the “three turnings of the wheel of the Dharma.” The three turnings sketch an intellectual history of Buddhism:

1. The first turning was the teachings on the Four Noble Truths.
2. The second turning was the Mahayana teachings, including on the bodhisattva path, the Prajnaparamita Sutras, and the Madhyamaka teachings on emptiness.
3. The third turning of the wheel was the Yogachara philosophy teachings on the innate enlightenment of all beings, and some of the Vairayana tantras as well.

Historically, Tibetan Buddhism refers to those Buddhist traditions that use Tibetan as a ritual language. It is practiced in Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, Ladakh, and among certain groups in Nepal, China, and Russia and has an international following. Buddhism was introduced to Tibet in two waves, first when rulers of the Tibetan Empire (seventh to ninth centuries CE), embraced the Buddhist faith as their state religion, and during the second diffusion (late tenth through thirteenth centuries), when monks and translators brought in Buddhist culture from India, Nepal, and Central Asia. As a result, the entire Buddhist canon was translated into Tibetan, and monasteries grew to become centers of intellectual, cultural, and political power. From the end of the twelfth century, Tibetans were exporting their own Buddhist traditions abroad. Tibetan Buddhism integrates Mahayana teachings with the esoteric practices of Vajrayana, and includes those developed in Tibet, such as Dzogchen, as well as indigenous Tibetan religious practices focused on local gods. Historically major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism are Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk.

The Sanskrit Buddhist Canon was translated into Tibetan from the seventh century onward during the first and second diffusions. The Sakya-tradition scholar Buton Rinchen Drub (1290–1364) gave this mass of translations its final, codified form. The Tibetan canon is divided into two parts, which together usually take up hundreds of volumes:

1. The Kangyur, “Translation of [the Buddha’s] Words,” contains texts believed to have been taught by the Buddha himself, including Sutras, Tantras, and the Vinaya.
2. The Tengyur, “Translation of Teachings,” contains commentaries, scholastic works, philosophical studies, and other topics.
3. The original Sanskrit canon was mostly lost with the decline of Buddhism in India, making the Tibetan and Chinese translations the only two surviving Mahayana canons.

In the early seventh century, a line of kings from the Yarlung Valley united disparate people on the Tibetan Plateau into a powerful, centralized state. With their capital at Lhasa, these kings proclaimed themselves emperors, or tsenpo. Their armies conquered much of the Himalayas, Central Asia, and western China. Tibetans developed a written script for the Tibetan language and Buddhism was adopted as a state religion. The conversion to Buddhism was contested by an indigenous group of ritualists called Bon, creating political turmoil. After the assassination of emperor Langdarma in 842, the Tibetan empire fragmented and collapsed. Nevertheless, the myths and memories of the empire continue to be a central part of Tibetan identity.

The Tibetan Government-in-Exile is a reconstituted form of the Ganden Podrang government that now resides in Dharamshala, India. In 1951, Tibet was formally incorporated into the People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong (1893–1976). In 1959, an uprising against the Chinese communist rule led to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and surviving members of the Tibetan government flight to India, where they rebuilt a government-in-exile, with a democratically elected parliament (Tib. kashag) and a president. In 2011, The Dalai Lama formally relinquished his political leadership role in Tibetan exile government. This government represents the roughly 150,000 Tibetans who form an exiled diaspora in India, Nepal, and worldwide.

Tibetans are an ethnic group who live on the Tibetan plateau, as well as neighboring parts of northern India, Nepal, and around the world. Traditionally, Tibetans have combined agriculture in the river valleys with pastoral animal husbandry on high plateaus. Most Tibetans are Buddhists, but there are also followers of Bon, Islam, and other indigenous ritual traditions. Today, there are about seven million Tibetan people globally.

The Tibetan script is used to write the Tibetan language, as well as several other smaller Himalayan languages. Based on the Brahmi script used in the Gupta Empire in India, the Tibetan script was developed under the Tibetan Empire in the seventh century and is credited to minister Tonmi Sambhota (b. 619?). Two important forms of the Tibetan script are “Uchen” (Tib. “having a head”), a standard type used in printed texts, and “Umey” (Tib. “headless”), a cursive form sometimes used in manuscripts. There are many other cursive and decorative forms of the script.

Torana is a Sanskrit word that usually refers to a gateway, but in Nepalese usage it is generally used for the decorative upper panel framing the top of a doorway (or other portal like a window), that embellish the entrances to shrines, temples, and Buddhist monasteries. Toranas in Nepal are typically adorned with mythological creatures, such as snake spirit (naga), water monster (makara), and the “sky face ” (kirtimukha). A set of six ornaments commonly found on Tibetan toranas are: a mythical bird (Garuda) at top, holding the tails of a pair of coiling snake spirits (naga), water monsters (makara), a pair of leogryphs, ridden by youths, supported by a pair elephants at the bottom.

In Tibetan Buddhism and Bon, a torma is a sculpture made from butter and barley dough that is usually dyed. Tormas are used for a variety of purposes in rituals, and can be offerings to the gods, or consecrated as receptacles of divine power. In exorcistic rituals, evil forces are invited into the tormas, which are then brought outside of the settlement and destroyed. These tormas can be understood as ransom in exchange for victims plagued by spirits, or as a substitute for animal sacrifice. Some monasteries have traditions of making huge, beautifully decorated tormas, which are viewed by pilgrims at festivals like the Monlam Chenmo. Tormas can be figurative (images that depict the gods or other scenes), or they can be aniconic (symbolic shapes).

In Buddhist cosmology, the Trayastrimsha Heaven is one of the various heavens within samsara, said to be located at the peak of Mount Sumeru. The Trayastrimsha is the home of thirty-three gods ruled over by Indra.

In Tibetan Buddhism, a tsatsa is a small sculpture created by pressing clay into a mold. Tsatsas can depict deities, stupas, auspicious signs, and more. Some tsatsas have medicinal plants, or the cremated ashes of loved ones mixed into the clay and taken to various sacred sites to generate merit for their better rebirth. In Newar context, a grain of rice is added. Tsatsas are created to generate religious merit and are often consecrated and then placed within stupas, or made by pilgrims and devotees and left at sacred sites. Tibetans have been creating tsatsas since around the eleventh century, and tsatsa making remains a common practice among lay devotees today.

Tsenpo is a title, sometimes conventionally translated as “emperor,” used for the rulers of the Tibetan Empire. Songtsen Gampo (d. 649 CE) was the first tsenpo, who unified most of the Tibetan Plateau and founded the Buddhist Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. The last tsenpo of the Tibetan empire was Langdarma (d. 842), an anti-Buddhist king whose assassination by a Buddhist monk sparked civil war, and ultimately the collapse of the Tibetan empire. Later Tibetan rulers who tried to declare themselves inheritors of the Tibetan empire, such as the rulers of the kingdom of Tsongkha in eastern Tibet (eleventh century), also employed this title to strengthen their claims.

In Tibetan Buddhism, a tulku is a lineage of reincarnated lamas. Buddhists believe that sentient beings pass through infinite lives in samsara, reborn in new bodies after each death. Certain highly advanced practitioners are able to control this process, choosing their reincarnation. From the thirteenth century onward, this process became institutionalized in Tibet as a formal means of succession. When a tulku dies, a special team of monks and close disciples performs divinations and other tests to locate a child, who is then enthroned as the new incarnation of the lineage. Over the centuries, many of these lineages amassed immense estates (labrang), and became extremely powerful and prestigious within Tibetan and Mongol society. Important tulku lineages include the Karmapas, the Dalai Lamas, the Panchen Lamas, and the Jibzundambas.

In Buddhist cosmology, Tushita is the name of a heavenly realm, although still part of the wheel of reincarnation (Skt. samsara). Bodhisattvas destined to become buddhas, like Maitreya, are said to dwell in the Tushita Heaven before their final incarnation.