tulpa

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Tibetan སྤྲུལ་པ (sprul pa, “emanation, magical creation”), equivalent to (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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 modern type of imaginary friend inspired by traditional tulpa.

Translations

magical creature that attains corporeal reality, having been imaginary

• Japanese: トゥルパ (turupa)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: tulpa f or m

modern type of imaginary friend

• Japanese: タルパ (tarupa)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Derived terms

• tulpamancy

References

• What is a tulpa?

Anagrams

• Pluta