84000 Glossary of Terms

Our trilingual glossary combining entries from all of our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.

འབྱུང་པོ། | Glossary of Terms

  • བྱུང་པོ།

  • བྷུ་ཏ།
  • འབྱུང་པོ།
  • ’byung po
  • byung po
  • b+hu ta
  • bhūta
  • Term
Publications: 49

This term in its broadest sense can refer to any being, whether human, animal, or nonhuman. However, it is often used to refer to a specific class of nonhuman beings, especially when bhūtas are mentioned alongside rākṣasas, piśācas, or pretas. In common with these other kinds of nonhumans, bhūtas are usually depicted with unattractive and misshapen bodies. Like several other classes of nonhuman beings, bhūtas take spontaneous birth. As their leader is traditionally regarded to be Rudra-Śiva (also known by the name Bhūta), with whom they haunt dangerous and wild places, bhūtas are especially prominent in Śaivism, where large sections of certain tantras concentrate on them.

1 Related glossary entries:

འབྱུང་མོ།

  • bhūtinī
  • bhūtinī