Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online

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Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, published both in print and online, is the first comprehensive academic reference work devoted to the plurality of Buddhist traditions across Asia, offering readers a balanced and detailed treatment of this complex phenomenon in seven thematically arranged volumes: Literature and Languages (I, publ. 2015), Lives (II, publ. 2019), Thought (III, forthcoming 2024), History: South Asia, IV-1 (forthcoming 2023), History: Central and East Asia, IV-2 (2023) Life and Practice, V (forthcoming 2026), index and remaining issues VI (forthcoming 2027).


Each volume contains substantial original essays by many of the world’s foremost scholars, essays which not only cover basic information and well-known issues but which also venture into areas as yet untouched by modern scholarship. An essential tool for anyone interested in Buddhism, the online resource will provide easy access to the encyclopedia’s ever-growing corpus of information.
The online edition of History: Central and East Asia, IV-2, has been published online in November 2023 with further volumes following after their original publication in print.


Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism is under the general editorial control of Jonathan Silk (Leiden University, editor-in-chief). Each volume has a dedicated board of specialist editors and in later volumes also a volume editor; in the series so far this includes Richard Bowring (University of Cambridge), Vincent Eltschinger (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris), Oskar von Hinuber (Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg) and Michael Radich (Heidelberg University).



More information: Brill.com

Tangut Buddhism

(9,932 words)

Author(s): Solonin, Kirill | Haoran, Hou
Introduction – Methodological Considerations – The State of the Field – Early Spread of Buddhism among the Tanguts – Legal Regulations for Monastic Communities – Temple Economy – Official and Popular Buddhism – Temple Building – The Spread of Sinitic Buddhism in Xixia – Tibetan Buddhism in Xixia Introduction Although the people who became the Tanguts probably originated in northern Sichuan (四川), it was only after they were resettled in the Ordos region, inside the great bend of the Yellow River, that they began to show signs of filling a power…
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online
Date: 2023-10-01

Tantric Buddhist Deities in Southeast Asia

(6,528 words)

Author(s): Acri, Andrea
Located at the geographical intersection between South Asia and East Asia, Southeast Asia is an ethnically, linguistically, and culturally diverse region that provided an ideal setting for the circulation of goods, people, and ideas in the premodern period. Many of its subregions, such as the Western Indonesian Archipelago, the Malay Peninsula, and large portions of what are modern Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, were constitutive parts of the “Sanskrit Cosmopolis” since the early centuries of …
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online

Tantric Commentaries: South Asia

(8,809 words)

Author(s): Harunaga Isaacson | Francesco Sferra
Within learned writing in Sanskrit the genre of commentary became central at an early period, and remained so. By the time that Buddhist tantric commentaries began to be composed, exegesis and hermeneutics were already highly developed traditions, with a history of well over a thousand years. Their origin and a considerable period of early development lie, probably, before the time of the historical Buddha, and are strongly linked with the Vedic traditions and with some of the specialized branch…
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online

Tantric Literature: Overview South Asia

(8,551 words)

Author(s): Harunaga Isaacson | Francesco Sferra
Tantras are scriptures, in that they purport to be the teachings of a buddha, whether the “historical” buddha Śākyamuni, or a sambhogakāya, or, sometimes, the teachings of a “cosmic” or transcendent buddha that are supposed to be taught also by all buddhas including Śākyamuni. It might be said that tantras give more importance than other Buddhist scriptures to the use of mantras that are regarded as a form of a deity for a number of goals, both in this world and beyond it. However, for the purpose of this overview tantras are defined as scriptures that label themselves tantras or that have c…
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online

Tantric Prakaraṇas

(4,608 words)

Author(s): Péter-Dániel Szántó
Prakaraṇas are usually short or mid-length treatises on a particular aspect of doctrine and/or practice, either tacitly endorsing and promoting a viewpoint or phrased in an apologetic style; in other words, they are descriptive or argumentative, essay-style exegetical writings. While there is nothing specifically tantric about the term prakaraṇa itself, in the present article it refers to those related to esoteric literature. These treatises do not claim to be revelation: the author is known, or there is at least supposed to have been a human…
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online

Tantric Ritual Manuals in East Asia

(5,375 words)

Author(s): Rolf Giebel
Ritual in the form of simple acts of ritualized behavior – for example circumambulation of a stūpa or offerings of flowers – has a long history in Buddhism. While this form of ritualized behavior was also performed by practitioners of esoteric or Tantric Buddhism, ritual as one of the hallmarks of esoteric Buddhism refers not so much to such single acts of ritualized behavior as to a systematically organized and structured set of activities that has been regularized to some degree. The majority of works of esot…
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online

Tathāgatagarbha Sūtras

(8,534 words)

Author(s): Michael Radich
There is no traditional rubric of tathāgatagarbha scriptures, though modern scholars (e.g. Takasaki, 1974) have treated several scriptures as belonging to a thematic class, namely the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta, the Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra, the (Mahāyāna) Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra, the Mahāmeghasūtra, the * Mahābherīhārakasūtra, and the Mahāyāna Aṅgulimālīya (or Aṅgulimālīyasūtra). This classification is based in the first instance on the use of these and related works as proof texts in the Indian treatise Ratnagotravibhāga ( Mahāy…
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online

Tejaprabhā

(2,299 words)

Author(s): Jeffrey Kotyk
*Tejaprabhā (Chn. Chishengguang; Jpn. Shijōkō [熾盛光]) is a prominent Tathāgata in East Asia, closely associated with astral deities. His cult emerged in China in the early 9th century as an amalgamation of Buddhist practices tied to astrology, and subsequently spread. His worship functioned as an apotropaic practice against calamities believed to be instigated by the planets envisioned as sentient deities. China Tejaprabhā is conceived of as a “luminous uṣṇīṣa of the Buddha” ( chishengguang foding [熾盛光佛頂]; T. 966 [XIX] 343a26). The Sanskrit name Tejaprabhā for the Chinese chishengg…
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online

Tenjin

(4,090 words)

Author(s): Borgen, Robert
In early Japanese mythology, Tenjin (天神, also pronounced “Amatsukami”), meaning “heavenly deity,” referred to Shintō deities or kami (神) who dwelled in heaven, such as the sun goddess Amaterasu (天照), in contrast to those of the land, who were known as Chigi (地祇, also pronounced “Kunitsukami”). In later centuries, however, the term came to refer most often to a subsequent addition to the Japanese pantheon, more properly known as Tenman Daijizai Tenjin (天滿大自在天神, The Heaven Filling Self-Sufficient Heavenly Deity), …
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online

Tenkai

(4,131 words)

Author(s): Boot, W.J.
Tenkai (天海; d. 1643) is best understood as a charismatic religious entrepreneur, whose single-minded ambition it was to restore the Tendai sect to its former grandeur, and to shift the center of the sect from Kyoto to Edo. Of pivotal importance in this undertaking were his meeting with Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康; 1542–1616), and his success in monopolizing Ieyasu’s posthumous deification. This ensured him powerful and lasting patronage. The main sources for the study of Tenkai can be found in the two volumes of Jigen-daishi zenshū (慈眼大師全集, hereafter JDZ). Additional materials are av…
Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online