Glossary

Jambhala ཛམ་བྷ་ལ་

Jambhala

Tibetan: ཛམ་བྷ་ལ་, Wylie: dzam bha la, Sanskrit: jambhala. aka Dzambhala. A protective deity associated with wealth and prosperity. Usually depicted as yellow in color and

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Kadampa

Tibetan: བཀའ་གདམས་པ་, Wylie: bka’ gdams pa. The first school of the New Tradition, which followed the teachings of Atīśa. It stressed compassion, study and pure discipline.

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Kangyur

Tibetan: བཀའ་འགྱུར་, Wylie: bka’ ‘gyur, English: Translated Words. The Tibetan Buddhist Canon is divided into two: The actual words of the Buddha contained in the

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Kapala

Tibetan: ཐོད་པ་, Wylie: thod pa, Sanskrit: kapāla. A bowl made with the top of a skull.

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maniratna

Maniratna

Tibetan: ནོར་བུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wylie: nor bu rin po che, Sanskrit: maṇiratna. A jewel, gem. In Tibetan: “precious jewel”.

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Mara

Tibetan: བདུད་, Wylie: bdud, Sanskrit: Māra. Demon. the tempter in general, that which makes obstacles to spiritual practice and enlightenment.

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Middle Way

Tibetan: དབུ་མ་, Wylie: dbu ma, Sanskrit: madhyamāpratipad. aka Madhyamaka. Teaching on emptiness first expounded by Nāgārjuna and considered to be the basis of the Secret Mantrayāna (aka

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Mount Meru

Tibetan: རི་རབ་, Wylie: ri rab, Sanskrit: sumeruparvata. Immense mountain, square in shape and wider at the top than at the bottom, surrounded by the four

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Princess Bhrikuti

Tibetan: ལྷ་ཅིག་ཁྲི་བཙུན་, Wylie: lha cig khri btsun, Sanskrit: Bhṛkutī. The Nepalese princess who married Songtsen Gampo སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ་ and played an important role in the establishment of Buddhism in

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Princess Wencheng

Tibetan: རྒྱ་བཟའ་ཀོང་ཇོ་, Wylie: rgya bza’ kong jo. The Chinese princess who married Songtsen Gampo སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོ་ and played an important role in the establishment of Buddhism in

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Buddhist Thangkas from Boudhanath, Nepal