Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia
The Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia is free for everyone and has no sponsors. It is kept alive only by the little donations of its readers.
Please consider making a little donation to help me pay the server costs and expand the encyclopedia.
Enjoy your readings here and have a wonderful day!
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PLEASE HELP
EVERY LITTLE DONATION MATTERS 🙏
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Start to read here |
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The Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia is a free online library of the Buddha Dharma. Here you will find 93,570 entries on Buddhist teachings, sutras, tantras, deities, teachers, monasteries, rituals, art, history and philosophy and much more, together with dictionaries of Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Zen terminology. Every article is illustrated and linked to related articles, so one subject leads naturally to the next.
How to use it
Choose a subject from the categories above, look up a word with the search box or the alphabet at the top of every page or simply begin with one of the articles under "Start to read here". You do not need to register and everything is free.
How it began
The Encyclopedia was created in September 2012 in Western Australia, near York, by Lama Vello Väärtnõu, Head of Estonian Nyingma, together with his student Benny. In December 2012 it was presented at the PNC/ECAI conference at the University of California, Berkeley, under its first name, the Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia. Guru Vello had earlier made the first Buddhist encyclopedia in the Estonian language and he wished to build something larger and lasting for future generations. For thirteen years he gathered, illustrated and linked the articles himself, without pay and at his own expense.
What we do
- Gather and preserve Buddhist texts, sutras, tantras, commentaries, prayers and images, so that they are not lost
- Present both the traditional Buddhist understanding and the academic view, with terms given in their original languages
- Welcome all traditions equally: Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana, and the Buddhism of every land
- Keep everything free for everyone, everywhere
In Guru Vello's words
- "This is my purpose in the life, to make Buddhism accessible to people for free. When Buddha Shakyamuni declared his teachings in the market-places, he didn't ask money for this."
Looking ahead
The Encyclopedia has no sponsors and lives on the donations of its readers. It keeps growing toward a World Buddhist Encyclopedia: a categorised and linked library of Buddhist texts, prayers, rituals and knowledge from all schools, carried forward in the spirit of its founder. 🙏
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia is 14 years old
For its 14th birthday the Encyclopedia received a major renewal. After many years of growing it had become a bit slow, and sometimes it even decided not to answer when people knocked on the door.
A very big thank you and blessings to Dmytro Rudiy (rudiy.nl) for upgrading the server and the website and making the Encyclopedia fast and reliable again for everyone! 🙏
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia on Facebook
Our Encyclopedia is now on FB: Come and join our conversations
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia Illustrations
Some of the Buddhist Illustrations created by Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia are free for everyone to use.
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Here you can read media articles about the Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia which have been published all over the world
Project author and main force behind Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia : Lama-la GURU Vello Väärtnõu
Administrator and 2nd help: Benny Benny
Our server and technical MediaWiki support comes from Dmytro Rudiy rudiy.nl
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia was created in September 2012 in Western Australia near York.