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.
གཙུག་ཏོར་འཕགས་པ། | Glossary of Terms
གཙུག་ཏོར་འཕགས་པ།
gtsug tor ’phags pa
uṣṇīṣonnata
- Term
- Raised uṣṇīṣa
- གཙུག་ཏོར་འཕགས་པ།
- gtsug tor ’phags pa
- uṣṇīṣonnata
The uṣṇīṣa, described in this text as “raised” (Skt. unnata) is one of the most prominent of the thirty-two signs of a great being and is often placed first or last in the list. In its simplest form it is an elevated shape of the head, like a turban (the Sanskrit term uṣṇīṣa in fact means “turban”), or more elaborately a dome-shaped extension. The extension is described as having various magical attributes such as emitting and absorbing rays of light or reaching such an immense height that the gods are incapable of flying over it.