Can anyone point me to a glossary of all the relevant Tibetan titles and their meanings? I'm having a hard time, as a beginner, telling what the names are and what the titles are.
For example, I see
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
or
Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche
or
Katok Situ Chökyi Gyatso
etc.
Which is the name, and which are the titles, and what do they mean?
Thanks.
Deciphering Tibetan Buddhist titles?
Re: Deciphering Tibetan Buddhist titles?
Hmm... Seems like my response got lost in an internet glitch
I do not have a "ressource glossary" to point to, but hopefully this will be helpful:
Examples of titles:
Rinpoche - Precisou one
Tülku - Reincarnation (literally "body of magical manifestation")
Yangsi - Reincarnation (literally "back to existence")
Kybaje - Lord of Refuge
Je - Lord
Tridzin / Khridzin - Holder of the Throne
Yongdzin - Holder of all (the teachings / transmissions)
Kunkhyen - Omniscient
Lopön / Pönlob - "Dean" of the "university" (litteraly "chief of studies")
Drupthob - Accomplished one
Togden - Realized one
Geshe - Degree ± PhD (litteraly "Virtuous Friend", a teacher of "sutras")
Khenpo - Degree ± PhD in Nyingma & Kagyü / Abbot in Bön (Litterally "learned one")
Tertön - Treasure Revealer
Lingpa - "Suffix" name of Tertön's
In the example you've given, you also find one of the teachers' Dharma names: Khyentse, Chökyi Gyatso...
As well as their pedigree / origin, either their monastery (Dzongsar, Katok...), or family (Dilgo...).
I do not have a "ressource glossary" to point to, but hopefully this will be helpful:
Examples of titles:
Rinpoche - Precisou one
Tülku - Reincarnation (literally "body of magical manifestation")
Yangsi - Reincarnation (literally "back to existence")
Kybaje - Lord of Refuge
Je - Lord
Tridzin / Khridzin - Holder of the Throne
Yongdzin - Holder of all (the teachings / transmissions)
Kunkhyen - Omniscient
Lopön / Pönlob - "Dean" of the "university" (litteraly "chief of studies")
Drupthob - Accomplished one
Togden - Realized one
Geshe - Degree ± PhD (litteraly "Virtuous Friend", a teacher of "sutras")
Khenpo - Degree ± PhD in Nyingma & Kagyü / Abbot in Bön (Litterally "learned one")
Tertön - Treasure Revealer
Lingpa - "Suffix" name of Tertön's
In the example you've given, you also find one of the teachers' Dharma names: Khyentse, Chökyi Gyatso...
As well as their pedigree / origin, either their monastery (Dzongsar, Katok...), or family (Dilgo...).
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Re: Deciphering Tibetan Buddhist titles?
Thanks! And Gyatso? Jamyang?
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Re: Deciphering Tibetan Buddhist titles?
These are more often given names, for example Gyatso means ocean and Jamyang is manjushri.
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Re: Deciphering Tibetan Buddhist titles?
Gyatso = "ocean," and is usually a name.
Jamyang = "gentle speech, sweet-voiced," a.k.a. Manjughosha (an alternate name for Manjushri). It's also a commonly used Tibetan name.
Jamyang = "gentle speech, sweet-voiced," a.k.a. Manjughosha (an alternate name for Manjushri). It's also a commonly used Tibetan name.
"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme
དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
Re: Deciphering Tibetan Buddhist titles?
Dzongsar Monastery, Incarnation lineage, honorific
or
Family name / incarnation lineage / descriptive (rebirth) / honorificDilgo / Khyentse / Yangsi / Rinpoche
Monastery, incarnation lineage, personal nameor
Katok / Situ / Chökyi Gyatso
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Re: Deciphering Tibetan Buddhist titles?
I think Gyatso means ocean and Jamyang means "gentle voice". They are both part of their actual names, not titles. Unless of course they are inherited tulku names. Then it is sort of a title.
To add to the list of titles above, I'm fairly sure that Situ was a title given to certain lamas by the Chinese emperor (or maybe the Mongolian khan?) I think it means something like imperial preceptor. The tulkus of the original Situs still cary the names. (Tai situ, Kathok Situ ... I assume there are others)
To add to the list of titles above, I'm fairly sure that Situ was a title given to certain lamas by the Chinese emperor (or maybe the Mongolian khan?) I think it means something like imperial preceptor. The tulkus of the original Situs still cary the names. (Tai situ, Kathok Situ ... I assume there are others)