tulpa

English

Etymology

From Tibetan སྤྲུལ་པ (sprul pa, “emanation, magical creation”), equivalent to a calque of Sanskrit निर्मित (nirmita, “build”) or निर्माण (nirmāṇa, “build”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʌlpə/, /ˈtuːlpə/

Noun

tulpa (plural tulpas or (often in sense 2) tulpae)

1. (Buddhism, mysticism) A magical creature that attains corporeal reality, having been originally merely imaginary.
   • 1966, Nikos Kazantzakis, England: A Travel Journal, page 110:

     When the year was up, the tulpa began growing. It lost its fear of its master and began taking on new forms of its own. It ceased to run errands ....

2. A type of thoughtform capable of independent action, with a persistent personality and identity; a kind of modern imaginary friend.

Derived terms

• tulpamancy

Translations

magical creature that attains corporeal reality, having been imaginary

• Japanese: トゥルパ (turupa)

• Portuguese: tulpa f or m

modern type of imaginary friend

• Japanese: タルパ (tarupa)

• Russian: тульпа (ru) f (tulʹpa)

References

• What is a tulpa?

Anagrams

• Pluta, Putla