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.

ཀླུ། | Glossary of Terms

  • ཀླུ།

  • ན་ག
  • klu
  • na ga
  • nāga
  • bhujaga
  • Term
Publications: 103

A class of nonhuman beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments, where they guard wealth and sometimes also teachings. Nāgas are associated with serpents and have a snakelike appearance. In Buddhist art and in written accounts, they are regularly portrayed as half human and half snake, and they are also said to have the ability to change into human form. Some nāgas are Dharma protectors, but they can also bring retribution if they are disturbed. They may likewise fight one another, wage war, and destroy the lands of others by causing lightning, hail, and flooding.

Translation by Karen Liljenberg · Ulrich Pagel
  • Nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

This term tests soft-hypen word-boundaries.

Translation by Fumi Yao
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Gyurme Dorje
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Gareth Sparham
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Gyurme Dorje
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of serpentine water spirits and repositors of subaquatic and subterranean treasure.

Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
  • bhujaga
Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Zachary Beer
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Oriane Lavolé
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A nonhuman class of beings who live in subterranean and/or aquatic environments and are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart · Nika Jovic
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
  • 龍神
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Klaus-Dieter Mathes · Julika Weber · Katrin Querl · Konstantin Brockhausen · Susanne Fleischmann · Daniel Gratzer · Georgi Krastev · Jamie Gordon Creek
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman beings who live in aquatic environments and who are said to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Ulrich Pagel
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Tulku Sherdor · Virginia Blum
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Jed Forman · ErdeneBaatar Erdene-Ochir · Michael Ium
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by David Jackson
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman beings that live in subterranean environments and are said to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Thomas Doctor
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A nonhuman class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Catherine Dalton · Heidi Koppl · James Gentry · Cortland Dahl · Hilary Herdman · Andreas Doctor
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Jens Erland Braarvig
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Mattia Salvini
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semi-divine being similar to a large snake.

Translation by Dr. Thomas Doctor · James Gentry
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Tulku Sherdor · Virginia Blum
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of semidivine beings that inhabit bodies of water and act as guardians of treasure.

Translation by Gregory Forgues
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

Type of being in Buddhist cosmogony.

Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

In India, this was the cobra deity, which in Tibet was equated with water spirits and in China with dragons, neither country having cobras.

Translation by Gyurmé Avertin
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman beings who live in aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Joseph McClellan
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Wiesiek Mical · Timothy Hinkle
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman beings with bodies that are half snake and half human.

Translation by David Jackson
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments where they are known to guard wealth and esoteric teachings. Nāgas are associated with serpents and often assume a snakelike appearance. In Buddhist art and in written accounts, nāgas are regularly portrayed as being half human and half snake, and, as mentioned in this sūtra, said to have the ability to change into human form. Some nāgas are Dharma protectors, but they can also bring retribution if they are disturbed. Nāgas likewise fight one another, wage war, and destroy the lands of others by causing lightning, hail, and flooding.

Translation by Dr. Andreas Doctor
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Dr. Anne Burchardi · Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche · Dr. Ulrich Pagel
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Timothy Hinkle · Ryan Damron · Dr. Andreas Doctor
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. Nāgas are associated with snakes and serpents, and often assume a snakelike appearance.

Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments where they are known to guard wealth and esoteric teachings. Nāgas are associated with serpents and often assume a snakelike appearance. In Buddhist art and in written accounts, nāgas are regularly portrayed as being half human and half snake, and, as mentioned in this sūtra, said to have the ability to change into human form. Some nāgas are Dharma protectors, but they can also bring retribution if they are disturbed. Nāgas likewise fight one another, wage war, and destroy the lands of others by causing lightning, hail, and flooding.

Translation by Benjamin Ewing
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments where they are known to guard wealth and esoteric teachings. Nāgas are associated with serpents and often assume a snakelike appearance. In Buddhist art and in written accounts, nāgas are regularly portrayed as being half human and half snake, and, as mentioned in this sūtra, said to have the ability to change into human form. Some nāgas are Dharma protectors, but they can also bring retribution if they are disturbed. Nāgas likewise fight one another, wage war, and destroy the lands of others by causing lightning, hail, and flooding.

Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Gyurmé Avertin
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and are said to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents, and are subordinate to Virūpākṣa, the Great King of the West.

Translation by Tenpa Tsering
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Ani Jinpa Palmo
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings that live in subterranean aquatic environments and that are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Venerable Jampa Losal · YangDol Tsatultsang
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

Nāgas are associated with springs, streams, rivers, and water in general, and among their many magical powers is the ability to produce rain.

Translation by Celso Wilkinson · Laura Goetz · L.S. Summer
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A mythical being usually depicted as having the top half of a human and the bottom half of a snake. However, the nāga has a myriad of associations within Buddhism and Indian traditions in general; the term may be associated with deities, snakes (more specifically cobras), elephants, subterranean spirits, water spirits, or ethnic groups of people from the Indian subcontinent. In Tibet they became specifically associated with water spirits (klu), and in China they came to be associated with dragons. Here the image of the nāga is the twenty-seventh of the eighty designs on the palms and soles of the Tathāgata.

Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean acquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Jens Braarvig
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Robert A. F. Thurman
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

One of the lords of the ocean, appearing as a great, many headed, sea dragon.

Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Andreas Doctor · Zachary Beer
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Dr. Karen Liljenberg · Dr. Ulrich Pagel
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Jamyang Choesang · Kunsang Choepel · Boyce Teoh · Solvej Nielsen
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

Nāgas are serpent-like animals who live (invisibly) in the human realm and have an ambivalent status, on occasion positive but also frequently harmful.

Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart · Nika Jovic
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are said to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Lowell Cook
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Zachary Beer
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Karen Liljenberg · Ulrich Pagel
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are said to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart · Nika Jovic
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Benjamin Ewing
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Joshua Capitanio
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman serpentine beings. They can change their shape and are usually said to reside in water.

Translation by Joshua Capitanio
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Zhuo Siyu · Shenghai Li
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Jed Forman · ErdeneBaatar Erdene-Ochir · Michael Ium
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of semidivine beings who live in aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth. They are associated with snakes and serpents. 

Translation by Timothy Hinkle · Anna Zilman · Lama Tenzin Sangpo
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Adam Krug
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings that live in subterranean aquatic environments and that are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Bhikṣuṇī Thubten Damcho
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Jampa Tenzin · Ngawang Tenzin · Christian Bernert · Julia C. Stenzel
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Ana Cristina Lopes
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Annie Bien
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Laura Dainty
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Rolf Scheuermann · Casey Kemp
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

Snake-like mystical creatures with supernatural powers, which belong to the animal realm.

Translation by Dr. Thomas Doctor · Timothy Hinkle · Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A serpentine class of beings associated with intelligence and wealth.

Translation by Annie Bien
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean and aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Celso Wilkinson · Laura Goetz
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A supernatural being usually depicted as having the top half of a human and the bottom half of a snake. However, the nāga has a myriad of associations within Buddhism and Indian traditions in general; the term may be associated with deities, snakes (more specifically cobras), elephants, subterranean spirits, water spirits, or ethnic groups of people from the Indian subcontinent. In Tibet they became specifically associated with water spirits (klu), and in China they came to be associated with dragons ().

Translation by Sonam Tsering Ngulphu · Norzin Dolma
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments where they are known to guard wealth and esoteric teachings. Nāgas are associated with serpents and often assume a snakelike appearance. In Buddhist art and in written accounts, nāgas are regularly portrayed as being half human and half snake, and, as mentioned in this sūtra, said to have the ability to change into human form. Some nāgas are Dharma protectors, but they can also bring retribution if they are disturbed. Nāgas likewise fight one another, wage war, and destroy the lands of others by causing lighting, hail, and flooding.

Translation by Bruno Galasek-Hul
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Dr. Lozang Jamspal · Kaia Fischer · Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

Nāgas belong half to the animal realm and half to the god realm (Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary). They are believed to abide in subterranean realms, having control over rain, ponds, rivers, and soil productivity. Some are Dharma protectors, but they can bring retribution if they are disturbed. Often in Buddhist arts and in written accounts, they are portrayed as being half human and half snake (Rigzin 9).

Translation by Ruth Gamble · Tenzin Ringpapontsang
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments where they are known to guard wealth and esoteric teachings. Nāgas are associated with serpents and often assume a snakelike appearance. In Buddhist art and in written accounts, nāgas are regularly portrayed as being half human and half snake, and are said to have the ability to change into human form. Some nāgas are Dharma protectors, but they can also bring retribution if they are disturbed.

Translation by Lowell Cook · Jessica Locke
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Lowell Cook
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Laura Dainty
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A nonhuman class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.

Translation by Wiesiek Mical
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of semi-divine beings with bodies that are half human, half snake.

Translation by Wiesiek Mical
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman beings, half-human and half-snake.

Translation by Adam Krug
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

Serpentine beings typically associated with waterways, springs, and the rains.

Translation by Dylan Esler
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of nonhuman beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. Nāgas are associated with snakes and serpents and often assume a snakelike appearance.

Translation by Adam Krug
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of terrestrial beings.

Translation by Wiesiek Mical
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class of semidivine beings that are half serpent, half human.

Translation by Wiesiek Mical
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

Class of semi-divine serpent-like beings.

Translation by David Mellins · Kaia Fischer · Erin Sperry
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by James Gentry
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by James Gentry
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by James Gentry
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Stefan Mang · Roger Espel Llima · Ryan Conlon · Paul Thomas
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Stefan Mang · Lowell Cook · Ryan Conlon · Paul Thomas · Roger Espel Llima
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Stefan Mang · Laura Dainty · Ryan Conlon · Paul Thomas · Roger Espel Llima
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Stefan Mang · Laura Dainty · Ryan Conlon · Paul Thomas · Roger Espel Llima
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Julian Schott
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. Associated with snakes and serpents, they can both obstruct and protect human life.

Translation by Wiesiek Mical · Anna Zilman · Andreas Doctor · Adam Krug
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • ན་ག
  • klu
  • na ga
  • nāga
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Definition in this text:

A class on nonhuman beings, half-snake and half-human.

Translation by Lozang Jamspal · Kaia Fischer · Erin Sperry
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Catherine Dalton
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga
Translation by Gareth Sparham
  • nāga
  • ཀླུ།
  • klu
  • nāga