Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume One A -L Robert E. Buswell

L OCAL D IVINITIES AND B UDDHISM
tion should also be made of the use of lineage in Tibetan
Buddhism, where incarnate lamas, leaders of the
Buddhist community, are assumed to be successive
embodiments of leading buddhas and bodhisattvas,
following a notion introduced with the first KARMA
PA Lama, Dus gsum mkhyen pa (Düsum Khyenpa;
1110–1193). This is the most distinctive of Tibetan
hierarchical institutions, which identifies a future lama
as the rebirth of his deceased predecessor. The most
famous example of this is the DALAI LAMA, considered
to be an incarnation of Tibet’s patron bodhisattva,
Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.
Bibliography
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial
China: A Social History of Writing about Rites. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Faure, Bernard. The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of
Northern Chan Buddhism, tr. Phyllis Brooks. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 1997.
Foulk, T. Griffith. “Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung
Ch’an Buddhism.” In Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung
China, ed. Peter N. Gregory and Patricia Buckley Ebrey.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
Foulk, T. Griffith. “Sung Controversies Concerning the ‘Separate
Transmission’ of Ch’an.” In Buddhism in the Sung, ed.
Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz, Jr. Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press, 1999.
Foulk, T. Griffith, and Sharf, Robert H. “On the Ritual Use of
Ch’an Portraiture in Medieval China.” Cahiers d’ Extrême
Asie 7 (1993–1994): 149–219.
Jan, Yün-hua. “Tsung-mi: His Analysis of Ch’an Buddhism.”
T’oung Pao 58 (1972): 1–54.
Jorgensen, John. “The ‘Imperial’ Lineage of Ch’an Buddhism:
The Role of Confucian Ritual and Ancestor Worship in
Ch’an’s Search for Legitimation in the Mid-T’ang Dynasty.”
Papers on Far Eastern History 35 (1987): 89–133.
Lamotte, Étienne. History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins
to the Śaka Era, tr. Sara Webb-Boin and Jean Dantinne. Louvain,
Belgium: Université Catholique de Louvain Institute
Orientaliste; Peters Press, 1988.
Shinohara, Koichi. “From Local History to Universal History:
The Construction of the Sung T’ien-t’ai Lineage.” In Buddhism
in the Sung, ed. Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz,
Jr. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999.
Welch, Holmes. “Dharma-Scrolls and the Succession of Abbots
in Chinese Monasteries.” T’oung Pao 50 (1963): 93–149.
Welch, Holmes. The Practice of Chinese Buddhism: 1900–1950.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Welter, Albert. “Mahakaśyapa’s Smile: Silent Transmission and
the Kung-an (Ko an) Tradition.” In The Ko an: Texts and Contexts
in Zen Buddhism, ed. Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Yampolsky, Philip B. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch.
New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1967.
LINJI SCHOOL. See Chan School; Yixuan
LITURGY. See Chanting and Liturgy
LOCAL DIVINITIES AND BUDDHISM
ALBERT WELTER
There is no single Buddhist term that covers the same
semantic area as the English word DIVINITIES or its
equivalents, such as deities, gods, and supernatural beings.
In fact, Buddhist COSMOLOGY recognizes several
kinds of divine or semidivine beings, all endowed with
superhuman faculties: BUDDHAS and BODHISATTVAS;
former disciples of the Buddha (śravakas); saints of
various kinds (arhats in particular); angelic figures
(gandharva, kim nara); “gods” proper (Sanskrit devas;
Japanese kami; Burmese nats); anti-gods (asura); various
kinds of ghosts; demonic and monsterlike figures
(preta, yaksa, raksasa); mythological animals (naga,
garura, mahoraga); and devils and other denizens of
hell. Each of these classes has its own place in cosmology
and its role in SOTERIOLOGY.
Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddhist saints are not
gods, but they are often worshiped as such. A major
doctrinal distinction separates buddhas, bodhisattvas,
and other saintly figures from all other superhuman
entities in that the former are situated outside of the
realm of transmigration. Gods, spirits, ghosts, and the
like, in contrast, are still prisoners of the law of KARMA
and will accordingly be reborn in the future in different
shapes until they attain the supreme liberation.
Even though Buddhist cosmology attributes a clear
preeminence to the Buddha and other enlightened beings,
local deities still play an important role in the life
and the liturgy of Buddhists in many parts of the world.
Buddhism and local deities:
approaches and problems
The role and status of divinities within the Buddhist
tradition is complicated. Deities are often seen as
E NCYCLOPEDIA OF B UDDHISM
465