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.

རི་རབ། | Glossary of Terms

  • མེ་རུ།

  • རི་བོ་ལྷུན་པོ།
  • རི་རབ་ལྷུན་པོ།
  • རི་རབ།
  • རི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རི་རབ།
  • རིའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རི་རབ།
  • རྒྱལ་པོ་རི་རབ།
  • ལྷུན་པོ།
  • ri rab
  • lhun po
  • ri’i rgyal po ri rab
  • ri rgyal po ri rab
  • ri rab lhun po
  • me ru
  • rgyal po ri rab
  • ri bo lhun po
  • sumeru
  • meru
  • sumeruparvata
  • sumeruparvatarāja
  • sumeru parvatarāja
  • Note: this data is still being sorted
  • Place
Publications: 79

According to ancient Buddhist cosmology, this is the great mountain forming the axis of the universe. At its summit is Sudarśana, home of Śakra and his thirty-two gods, and on its flanks live the asuras. The mount has four sides facing the cardinal directions, each of which is made of a different precious stone. Surrounding it are several mountain ranges and the great ocean where the four principal island continents lie: in the south, Jambudvīpa (our world); in the west, Godānīya; in the north, Uttarakuru; and in the east, Pūrvavideha. Above it are the abodes of the desire realm gods. It is variously referred to as Meru, Mount Meru, Sumeru, and Mount Sumeru.