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.

འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས། | Glossary of Terms

  • འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས།

  • འཇིག་རྟེན།
  • ’jig rten gyi khams
  • ’jig rten
  • lokadhātu
  • loka
  • Term
Publications: 12

The term lokadhātu refers to a single four continent world-system illumined by a sun and moon, with a Mount Meru at its center, an encircling ring of mountains at its periphery, with the various god realms above; thus including the desire, form and formless realms.

The term can also refer to groups of such world-systems in multiples of thousands. A universe of one thousand such world-systems is called a chiliocosm (sāhasra­loka­dhātu, stong gi ’jig rten gyi khams); one thousand such chiliocosms is called a dichiliocosm (dvisāhasralokadhātu, stong gnyis kyi ’jig rten gyi khams); and one thousand such dichiliocosms is called a trichiliocosm (trisāhasra­loka­dhātu, stong gsum gyi 'jig rten gyi khams). A trichiliocosm is the largest universe described in Buddhist cosmology.