bodhisattva

English

A 12th-century statue of the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi from the Long Đoị Pagoda in Hà Nam Province, Vietnam. The statue is now in the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts in Hanoi.

Alternative forms

• boddhisatva

Etymology

Borrowed from Sanskrit बोधिसत्त्व (bodhi-sattva, “enlightened existence”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /boʊ̯diːˈsʌtvə/, IPA^(key): /boʊ̯diːˈsɑtvə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

bodhisattva (plural bodhisattvas)

1. (Buddhism) A person who has taken specific lay or monastic vows and who is on the road to perfect knowledge; specifically, one who foregoes personal nirvana in order to help others achieve enlightenment.
2. (Buddhism) An enlightened being existing in a form of existence beyond the ordinary forms of physical reality understood and acknowledged by scientific thought, resembling the Western notion of angels, but with a wealth of its own nuances and expectations. These include the compassionate working for enlightenment of all sentient beings.

Synonyms

• mahasattva

Translations

bodhisattva

• Arabic: بُودِيسَاتْفَا‎ f (bodisatvā)
• Bengali: বোধিসত্ত্ব m (bodhisattwa)
• Burmese: ဗောဓိသတ် (my) (bau:dhi.sat)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 菩薩 (zh), 菩萨 (zh) (púsà), 菩提薩埵, 菩提萨埵 (pútísàduǒ), 摩訶薩埵, 摩诃萨埵 (móhēsàduǒ)

• Esperanto: bodhisatvo
• Finnish: bodhisattva
• French: bodhisattva (fr) m
• German: Bodhisattva m
• Greek: μποντισάτβα m (bontisátva)
• Hindi: बोधिसत्त्व m (bodhisattva)
• Indonesian: bodhisatwa (id)
• Japanese: 菩薩 (ja) (ぼさつ, bosatsu)
• Khmer: ពោធិសត្វ (pootʰiʔsat)
• Korean: 보살 (ko) (bosal)

• Lao: ພະໂພທິສັດ (pha phō thi sat), ໂພທິສັດ (phō thi sat)
• Malay: bodhisatwa
• Mongolian: бодьсадва (bodʹsadva)
• Pali: bodhisatta m
• Persian: بوداسف‎ (budasef), بوذاسف‎ (budhasaf)
• Portuguese: bodhisattva m or f
• Russian: бодхиса́ттва m (bodxisáttva), бодхиса́тва (ru) m (bodxisátva), бодиса́тва m (bodisátva)
• Sanskrit: बोधिसत्त्व (sa) m (bodhisattva)
• Sinhalese: බෝධිසත්ත්‍ව (bōdhisatt‍va)
• Spanish: bodhisattva m or f
• Thai: พระโพธิสัตว์ (prá-poo-tí-sàt), โพธิสัตว์ (poo-tí-sàt)
• Tibetan: བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ (byang chub sems dpa')
• Uyghur: بۇدساتۋا‎ (budsatwa)
• Vietnamese: bồ tát