Category: Buddhism

The Thean Hou Temple(chinese: 天后宫) is a striking six-tiered Chinese temple. It is located on a 1.67 acres (6,760 m²) of land atop Robson Heights along Lorong Bellamy, overlooking Jalan Syed Putra (Federal Highway). It was completed in 1987 and officially opened in 1989. The property belongs to the Persatuan Hainan Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan (Hainanese Association of Selangor and...

The Gateless Gate (無門關, Mandarin. Wumenguan, Japanese. Mumonkan) is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by Chinese monk Wumen (無門). Wumen’s preface indicates that the volume was published in 1228. Each koan is accompanied by a commentary and verse by Wumen. A classic edition includes a 49th case composed by Anwan (pen name...

The Bodhi Center is a center for the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was established in 2000. The center is affiliated with the Gelug-pa lineage and has ties to Drepung Loseling Institute in Atlanta, Georgia which is the American seat of the Drepung Loseling monastery of Tibet. There are many Tibetan Buddhist centers in the...

Trinley Thaye Dorje (born 6 May, 1983, Lhasa, Tibet) is recognized by many followers as the 17th Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. His father was Mipham Rinpoche, a reincarnation of an important lama of the Nyingmapa school, and Dechen Wangmo, the daughter of a noble family descended from King...

Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) (1949 – ) is an American Buddhist monk of the Thai forest kammathana tradition. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1971 with a degree in European Intellectual History, he traveled to Thailand, where he studied meditation under Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, himself a student of the late Ajaan Lee. He ordained in 1976 and lived at Wat...

A Thangka is a painted or embroidered Tibetan banner which was hung in a monastery or a family altar and carried by lamas in ceremonial processions. In Tibetan the word ‘than’ means flat and the suffix ‘ka’ stands for painting. The Thangka is thus a kind of painting done on flat surface but which can be rolled up when not...

Thammayut Nikaya (Pali), literally “Those adhering strictly to the monastic discipline” is an order of Theravada Buddhist monks in Thailand. It was founded in the 19th century by King Mongkut, the son of King Rama II. Mongkut’s aim was to upgrade monastic discipline and make it more orthodox, after Mongkut noticed what he saw as serious discrepancies between the rules...

The Thai Forest Tradition is a loosely organized movement within Thai Theravadin Buddhism, emphasizing meditation and strict adherance to the vinaya over intellectual pursuits. As the name suggests, it originated in Thailand, primarily among the Lao-speaking community in Northern Thailand. Perhaps its most widely known adherent was Ajahn Chah. Outside of Thailand it exists most prominently in the United States...

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is a lama of the Bön Tibetan religious tradition. He is founder and director of the Ligmincha Institute, an organization dedicated to the study and practice of the teachings of the Bön tradition. He was born in Amritsar, India. After his parents fled the Chinese invasion of Tibet, he received training from both Buddhist and Bön teachers,...

Lithang Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche (born 1950, in Lithang Thil, Tibet, died July 12 2015) is a Buddhist leader from eastern Tibet. He was convicted of carrying out bomb attacks by the Chinese authorities and sentenced to death in December 2002 along with Lobsang Dhondup, a relative of his. Lobsang was executed almost immediately, marking the first execution of a...

Tenshin Reb Anderson, roshi, is a noted American Zen Buddhism priest and teacher in the Soto school. Raised in Minnesota, he became a Buddhist in 1967 and studied with Shunryu Suzuki at the San Francisco Zen Center. He was ordained as a priest in 1970, receiving the name Tenshin Zenki (Japanese for “naturally real, whole activity”). In 1983, Anderson received...

Tendai (Japanese: 天台宗, Tendai-shū) is a Japanese school of Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school. Contents History Tendai Doctrine See also References History The Tiantai teaching was first brought to Japan by the Chinese monk Jianshen (鑑眞 Jp: Gishin) in the middle of the 8th century, but it was not widely accepted. In 805, the...

The Ten Stages Sutra (Sanskrit Daśabhūmikasūtra-śāstra, Dasabhūmikabhāsya; Chinese 十地經論, 十地論, 地論; pinyin shi di jing lun; also known as the Sutra on the Ten Stages) is an influential Mahayana Buddhist scripture written by Vasubandhu in Sanskrit and translated into Chinese by Bodhiruci and others during the 6th century. Supposedly, a Daśabhūmikā sect arose in China at one time, centered on...

The Temple of the Six Banyan Trees is an ancient Buddhist temple built in 537 in the Liang Dynasty in Guangzhou, southern China. The temple’s proximity to foreign consulates in Guangzou has made it a regular destination for families participating in the international adoption of children from China. Typically families receive blessings for their newly adopted children at this temple...