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Eight Great Yakṣa Generals
The Eight Great Yakṣa Generals (), or simply the Eight Yakṣa Generals, are guardian deities in Buddhism. They are retainers of Vaiśravaṇa, guardian of the north and king of the yakṣas. In East Asia, they are also variously known as the Eight Great Yakṣas (八大藥叉), the Eight Great Heavenly Kings (八大天王), and the Eight Brothers of Vaiśravaṇa (毘沙門八兄弟). Relationship to Vaiśravaṇa The term ''yakṣarākṣasa'' has been used as a general term to denote the many classes of spirits in Indian mythology, combining the words yakṣa and Rakshasa, rākṣasa. According to Buddhist mythology, Vaiśravaṇa is the chief of these beings, and long ago dwelt together with them in the realm of darkness. When Vaiśravaṇa converted to Buddhism, the many demonic spirits under his jurisdiction likewise assumed the role of devotees to the Buddha. Originally malevolent beings, their conversion led to their deification as benevolent guardian deities. Among t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally means 'spelled sounds'. Pinyin is the official romanization system used in China, Singapore, Taiwan, and by the United Nations. Its use has become common when transliterating Standard Chinese mostly regardless of region, though it is less ubiquitous in Taiwan. It is used to teach Standard Chinese, normally written with Chinese characters, to students in mainland China and Singapore. Pinyin is also used by various Chinese input method, input methods on computers and to lexicographic ordering, categorize entries in some Chinese dictionaries. In pinyin, each Chinese syllable is spelled in terms of an optional initial (linguistics), initial and a final (linguistics), final, each of which is represented by one or more letters. Initi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dharmapalas
A ''dharmapāla'' is a type of wrathful god in Buddhism. The name means "''dharma'' protector" in Sanskrit, and the ''dharmapālas'' are also known as the Defenders of the Justice (Dharma), or the Guardians of the Law. There are two kinds of ''dharmapala'', Worldly Guardians (''lokapala'') and Wisdom Protectors (''jnanapala''). Only Wisdom Protectors are enlightened beings. Description A protector of Buddhist dharma is called a ''dharmapala''. They are typically wrathful deities, depicted with terrifying iconography in the Mahayana and tantric traditions of Buddhism. The wrathfulness is intended to depict their willingness to defend and guard Buddhist followers from dangers and enemies. The '' Aṣṭagatyaḥ'' (the eight kinds of nonhuman beings) is one category of ''dharmapālas'', which includes the Garuda, Deva, Naga, Yaksha, Gandharva, Asura, Kinnara, and Mahoraga. In Vajrayana iconography and thangka depictions, ''dharmapala'' are fearsome beings, often with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yakshas
The Yakshas (, , ) in Mythology are a broad class of nature spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness. They appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, as well as ancient and medieval era temples of South Asia and Southeast Asia as guardian deities. The feminine form of the word is or Yakshini (, ; ). In Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, the s have a dual personality. On the one hand, a may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is also a darker version of the , which is a kind of ( bhuta) that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travellers, similar to the rakṣasas. Early yakshas Yakshas appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts. Several monumental yakshas are known from the time of the Maurya Empire period. They are variously dated from around the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century BCE. These statues are monumental (usual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twelve Heavenly Generals
In East Asian Buddhism, the Twelve Heavenly Generals or Twelve Divine Generals are the protective deities, or '' yaksha'', of Bhaisajyaguru, the buddha of healing. They are introduced in the Medicine Buddha Sutra or ''Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharāja Sūtra''. They are collectively named as follows: * * Japanese: or or Names of generals The precise names of the generals seem to vary depending on tradition. Those listed below are from an available Sanskrit transcription of the ''Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhārāja Sūtra'': Descriptions of each Heavenly General Zhendaluo (真達羅) Zhaoduluo (招杜羅) While the ''Honji'' and zodiac correspondences listed above are the standard in Japanese sources, there is variation among texts and regional traditions. Popular culture * Statues of the Twelve Heavenly Generals stand in Ngong Ping, Hong Kong. * The Heavenly Generals all appear as boss characters in 1994 video game '' Shin Megami Tensei II''. They are dep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pañcika
Pañcika () is a yaksha and consort of Hārītī, with whom he is said to have fathered 500 children. According to the '' Mahavamsa'', Pañcika was the commander-in-chief of the yakṣa army of Vaiśravaṇa and had another 27 yakṣa generals under his orders. Pañcika was often represented holding a lance and a bag of jewels or money together with Hariti in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, where they illustrated marital love following the intervention of the Buddha. The two figures "were very popular in Gandhara in the latter part of the second century, and their statues are many." When depicted holding a spear, he also signals his role as the chief of the Yakṣas. The iconography of Pancika was eventually merged with that of Vaiśravaṇa.. See also * Manibhadra * Vaiśravaṇa (Sanskrit: वैश्रवण) or (Pali; , zh, s=多闻天王, t=多聞天王, p=Duōwén Tiānwáng, ) is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and is considered an important figure in Bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rōmaji
The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as . Japanese is normally written in a combination of logogram, logographic characters borrowed from Chinese (kanji) and syllabary, syllabic scripts (kana) that also ultimately derive from Chinese characters. There are several different romanization systems. The three main ones are Hepburn romanization, Kunrei-shiki romanization (ISO 3602) and Nihon-shiki romanization (ISO 3602 Strict). Variants of the Hepburn system are the most widely used. Romanized Japanese may be used in any context where Japanese text is targeted at non-Japanese speakers who cannot read kanji or kana, such as for names on street signs and passports and in dictionaries and textbooks for foreign learners of the language. It is also used to transliterate Japanese terms in text written in English (or other languages that use the Latin script) on topics related ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Characters
Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only one that has remained in continuous use. Over a documented history spanning more than three millennia, the function, style, and means of writing characters have changed greatly. Unlike letters in alphabets that reflect the sounds of speech, Chinese characters generally represent morphemes, the units of meaning in a language. Writing all of the frequently used vocabulary in a language requires roughly 2000–3000 characters; , nearly have been identified and included in ''The Unicode Standard''. Characters are created according to several principles, where aspects of shape and pronunciation may be used to indicate the character's meaning. The first attested characters are oracle bone inscriptions made during the 13th century&n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century Before the Common Era, BCE. It is the Major religious groups, world's fourth-largest religion, with about 500 million followers, known as Buddhists, who comprise four percent of the global population. It arose in the eastern Gangetic plain as a movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia. Buddhism has subsequently played a major role in Asian culture and spirituality, eventually spreading to Western world, the West in the 20th century. According to tradition, the Buddha instructed his followers in a path of bhavana, development which leads to Enlightenment in Buddhism, awakening and moksha, full liberation from ''Duḥkha, dukkha'' (). He regarded this path as a Middle Way between extremes su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion, diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age#South Asia, Bronze Age. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a lingua franca, link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting effect on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Indo-Aryan languages# ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahavairocana Tantra
Vairocana (from Sanskrit: Vi+rocana, "from the sun" or "belonging to the sun", "Solar", or "Shining"), also known as Mahāvairocana (Great Vairocana), is a major Buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the '' Avatamsaka Sutra'', as the Dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In East Asian Buddhism ( Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese Buddhism), Vairocana is also seen as the dharmakāya (the supreme buddha-body, the body of ultimate reality), and the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of wisdom and purity. Mahāvairocana is often translated into East Asian languages as "Great Sun Buddha" ( Chinese: 大日如來, pinyin: ''Dàrì Rúlái'', Japanese: ''Dainichi Nyorai''). In the conception of the Five Jinas of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Vairocana is at the centre and is often considered a Primordial Buddha. In East Asian esoteric Buddhism, Mahāvairocana is considered to be a Cosmic Buddha whose body is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
