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Maha Vihara
Mahavihara () is the Sanskrit and Pali term for a great vihara (centre of learning or Buddhist monastery) and is used to describe a monastic complex of viharas. Mahaviharas of India A range of monasteries grew up in ancient Magadha (modern Bihar) and Bengal. According to Tibetan sources, five great mahaviharas stood out during the Pāla period: Vikramashila, the premier university of the era; Nalanda, past its prime but still illustrious, Somapura, Odantapurā, and Jaggadala. The five monasteries formed a network; "all of them were under state supervision" and there existed "a system of co-ordination among them . . it seems from the evidence that the different seats of Buddhist learning that functioned in eastern India under the Pāla were regarded together as forming a network, an interlinked group of institutions," and it was common for great scholars to move easily from position to position among them. Nalanda The famous Nalanda Mahavihara was founded a few centuries earli ...
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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# ...
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Pāli
Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a classical Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddhism. Pali was designated as a classical language by the Government of India on 3 October 2024. Origin and development Etymology The word 'Pali' is used as a name for the language of the Theravada canon. The word seems to have its origins in commentarial traditions, wherein the (in the sense of the line of original text quoted) was distinguished from the commentary or vernacular translation that followed it in the manuscript. K. R. Norman suggests that its emergence was based on a misunderstanding of the compound , with being interpreted as the name of a particular language. The name Pali does not appear in the canonical literature, and in commentary literature is sometimes substituted with , meaning a string or lineage. Thi ...
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Chaitya
A chaitya, chaitya hall, chaitya-griha, (Sanskrit:''Caitya''; Pāli: ''Cetiya'') refers to a shrine, sanctuary, temple or prayer hall in Indian religions. The term is most common in Buddhism, where it refers to a space with a stupa and a rounded apse at the end opposite the entrance, and a high roof with a rounded profile. Strictly speaking, the chaitya is the stupa itself, and the Indian buildings are chaitya halls, but this distinction is often not observed. Outside India, the term is used by Buddhists for local styles of small stupa-like monuments in Nepal, Cambodia, Indonesia and elsewhere. In Thailand a stupa itself, not a stupa hall, is called a chedi, a local Thai word derived from the Pali Cetiya. In the historical texts of Jainism and Hinduism, including those relating to architecture, ''chaitya'' refers to a temple, sanctuary or any sacred monument. Most early examples of chaitya that survive are Indian rock-cut architecture. Scholars agree that the standard form follo ...
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Cetiya
Cetiya, "reminders" or "memorials" (Sanskrit ''caitya''), are objects and places used by Buddhists to remember Gautama Buddha.Kalingabodhi jātaka, as quoted in John Strong, ''Relics of the Buddha'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 19 According to Damrong Rajanubhab, four kinds are distinguished in the Pāli Canon: "Relic hatu Memorial aribhoga Teaching hamma and votive desaka" Griswold, in contrast, states that three are traditional and the fourth, the Buddha Dhamma, was added later to remind monks that the true memory of Gautama Buddha can be found in his teachings. While these can be broadly called Buddhist symbolism, the emphasis tends to be on a historical connection to the Buddha and not a metaphysical one. In pre-Buddhist India ''caitya'' was a term for a shrine or holy place in the landscape, generally outdoors, inhabited by, or sacred to, a particular deity. In the ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra'', near the end of his life the Buddha remarks t ...
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Brahma-vihara
The (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of Brahma") is a series of four Buddhist virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as the four immeasurables (Pāli: ) or four infinite minds ( Chinese: ). The are: # loving-kindness or benevolence () # compassion () # empathetic joy () # equanimity () According to the ''Metta Sutta'', cultivation of the four immeasurables has the power to cause the practitioner to be reborn into a "Brahma realm" (Pāli: ). Etymology and translations * Pāli: * (sathara brahmavihārā) * , ( Wylie: ) may be parsed as "" and "", which is often rendered into English as "sublime" or "divine abodes". , usually translated as "the immeasurables", means "boundlessness, infinitude, a state that is illimitable". Rhys Davids & Stede, 1921–25, ''Pali-English Dictionary'', Pali Text Society. When developed to a high degree in meditation, these attitudes are said to make the mind "immeasurable" and like the mind of th ...
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List Of Buddhist Temples
This is a list of Buddhism, Buddhist temples, Monastery, monasteries, stupas, and pagodas for which there are Wikipedia articles, sorted by location. Australia Bangladesh Bhutan Brazil * Khadro Ling Buddhist Temple, Três Coroas, Rio Grande do Sul * Zu Lai Temple, Cotia, São Paulo Cambodia Canada Denmark * Havredal Zendo, Viborg, Denmark, Viborg Finland * Liên Tâm Monastery, Turku France * Kagyu-Dzong, Paris * Lerab Ling, Montpellier * Pagode de Vincennes, Bois de Vincennes * Plum Village Monastery * Vajradhara-Ling and Temple for Peace, Aubry-le-Panthou, Normandy Germany * Das Buddhistische Haus (English language, engl.: ''the Buddhist house''; oldest Buddhist temple in Buddhism in Europe, Europe) * German Dharmaduta Society * Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery, (Theravada) Greece *Kalachakra Stupa, in Karma Berchen Ling Buddhist Center, Lagkadaiika, Xylokastro Hungary * Hungarian Shaolin Temple * Wonkwangsa International Zen Temple, Esztergom ( ...
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List Of Mahaviharas Of Newar Buddhism
Newar Buddhism is one of the branches of Buddhism. One of the major elements of this branch of Buddhism is ''Mahavihara'' (महाबिहार) or ''Baha'' or great monastery. These monasteries have served as centers of learning in Newar Buddhism. These monasteries generally are built as a courtyard surrounded by two storied buildings consisting of halls. Some of these monasteries have been founded as early as fifth to twelfth century Many of these mahaviharas are listed as historical monuments of Nepal. The following is a list of these mahaviharas - See also * Buddhism in Nepal * Newar Buddhism * Kindo Baha * Pranidhipurna Mahavihar * Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Nepal * List of Buddhist stotras in Nepalbhasha A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ... * List ...
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India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is near Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago., "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations averag ...
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Faxian
Faxian (337–), formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as Fa-hien and Fa-hsien, was a Han Chinese, Chinese Chinese Buddhism, Buddhist bhikkhu, monk and translator who traveled on foot from Eastern Jin dynasty, Jin China to medieval India to acquire Buddhist scriptures. His birth name was Gong Sehi. Starting his journey about age 60, he traveled west along the overland Silk Road, visiting Buddhist sites in Central Asia, Central, South Asia, South, and Southeast Asia. The journey and return took from 399 to 412, with 10 years spent in India. Faxian's account of his Buddhist pilgrimage, pilgrimage, the ''Foguoji'' or ''Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms'', is a notable independent record of early Buddhism in India. He returned to China with a large number of Sanskrit texts, whose translations greatly influenced East Asian Buddhism and provide a for many historical names, events, texts, and ideas therein. Biography Faxian was born in Shanxi in the 4th-century under the Later ...
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Chinese Buddhism
Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, first=t, poj=Hàn-thoân Hu̍t-kàu, j=Hon3 Cyun4 Fat6 Gaau3, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism. The Chinese Buddhist canonJiang Wu, "The Chinese Buddhist Canon" in ''The Wiley Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism'', p. 299, Wiley-Blackwell (2014). draws from the traditions of Confucianism and Taoism as well as the rituals of local Chinese folk religion, folk religions. Chinese Buddhism emphasizes the study of Mahayana sutras and treatises. Some of the most important scriptures in Chinese Buddhism include the ''Lotus Sutra'', ''Avatamsaka Sutra, Flower Ornament Sutra'', Vimalakirti Sutra, ''Vimalakirtī Sutra'', ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, Nirvana Sutra,'' and Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, ''Amitābha Sutra''. Chinese Buddhism is the largest institutionalized religion in mainland China.Cook, Sarah (2017). The Battle for China's Spirit: Religious R ...
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Buddhaghosa
Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Sinhalese Theravādin Buddhist commentator, translator, and philosopher. He worked in the great monastery (''mahāvihāra'') at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajyavāda school and in the lineage of the Sinhalese ''mahāvihāra''. His best-known work is the ''Visuddhimagga'' ("Path of Purification"), a comprehensive summary of older Sinhala commentaries on the scriptural canon of the Theravāda school. According to Sarah Shaw, in Theravāda Buddhism this systematic work is "the principal text on the subject of meditation." The interpretations provided by Buddhaghosa have generally constituted the orthodox understanding of Theravādin scriptures since at least the 12th century CE. Buddhaghosa is generally recognized by both Western scholars and Theravādin Buddhists as the most important philosopher and commentator of the Theravāda school. Name The name ''Buddhaghosa'' means "Voice of the Buddha" (''Budd ...
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Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura (, ; , ) is a major city located in the north central plain of Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of North Central Province, Sri Lanka, North Central Province and the capital of Anuradhapura District. The city lies north of the current capital of Colombo in the North Central Province, on the banks of the historic Malwathu Oya. The city is now a World Heritage Site famous for its well-preserved ruins of the ancient Sinhala Kingdom, Sinhalese civilisation. While ''Mahāvaṃsa'' places the founding of the city in 437 BCE, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement on the island for almost three millennia and one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously occupied cities in Asia. It is the cradle of the Hydraulic Sinhalese civilisation, Theravada Buddhism, and the longest-serving List of capitals in Sri Lanka, ancient capital of Sri Lanka that has survived for 1500 years. Moreover, it was the first capi ...
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