Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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寺

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Buddhist temple

Senses:

  • A monastery or nunnery. An official hall, a temple, adopted by Buddhists for a monastery. In texts of Indian provenance, it is usually a translation for the Sanskrit vihāra, which is transliterated as 毘訶羅, 鼻訶羅, etc. Also a translation of saṃghârāma, which is transliterated as 僧伽藍. There are many other equivalents, such as 淨住; 法同舍; 出世舍; 精舍; 淸淨園; 金剛刹; 寂滅道場; 遠離處; 親近處 鞞訶羅; 尾賀羅.According to Eitel: "A model vihāra ought to be built of red sandalwood, with 32 chambers, 8 tāla trees in height, with a garden, park and bathing tank attached; it ought to have promenades for peripatetic meditation and to be richly furnished with stores of clothes, food, bedsteads, mattresses, medicines and all creature comforts." (Skt. adhyārāma, ārāma, kāntāra, kula, caitya, *, stūpa) [Charles Muller; source(s): JEBD, Hirakawa, Yokoi]
  • The Japanese word tera is said to be derived from the Korean jeol, meaning chapel, or from the Pāli thera, meaning elder. The Chinese character meant originally a reception hall for foreign representatives. [Charles Muller; source(s): JEBD]
  • In translating Japanese Zen works, In general, we reserve the term 'monastery' for a place where monks live together and engage in communal observances under a single set of rules and procedures. When ji 寺 or jiin 寺院 refers to a place where a resident priest 住職 lives with his wife and children, we translate those terms as 'temple.'
    1. In Japan the word ji 寺 applies almost exclusively to Buddhist institutions, but in Chinese it applied to a variety of government offices and religious establishments, including what in English might be called monasteries, temples, shrines, and mosques.
    2. In the original Chinese, similarly, the word in 院, which coupled with ji 寺 forms the binome jiin 寺院 (translated herein as 'monasteries and temples' ), referred to any courtyard or walled compound, within which might be a home, school, government office, or any other institution housed in one or more buildings.
    3. The word garan 伽藍 is a truncated Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit saṁghārāma, meaning a 'forest' or 'grove' in which members of the Buddhist saṃgha dwelled.
    4. The term sōrin 叢林, literally a 'thicket'  叢 that is a 'grove of trees'  林 (the latter term also indicates a 'gathering place' ) is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit saṁghārāma, meaning a 'forest' or 'grove' in which members of the Buddhist saṃgha dwelled.
    5. Bon'en 梵苑 means 'pure'  梵 'garden' or 'park'  苑. The reference to Buddhist monasteries as 'gardens' recalls the story of Anāthapiṇḍika, a wealthy layman who gave a park named Jetaʼs Grove 祇園林, 祇園精舍 (Skt. Jetāvana} in Śrāvastī to the Buddha to build a monastery.
    6. Bonsetsu 梵刹 means 'pure'  梵 'monastery'  刹. The original meaning of setsu 刹 is 'flagpole.' It may refer to markers that were used to establish the perimeter of a 'pure' area where monks resided during the rainy season retreat in India.
    7. A sōdō 僧堂 or 'saṃgha hall' was originally just one building within a monastery compound, but in the Edo period (1600–1868) in Japan it came by synecdoche to refer to a training monastery as a whole, especially one that had a meditation hall 禪堂 but no saṃgha hall proper.
    8. The term sanmon 山門, literally 'mountain gate,' refers both to the main gate of a monastery and, by synecdoche, to the monastery as a whole. It often has the meaning 'this monastery,' or 'here within the gates of this monastery.'
    [Griffith Foulk]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 753, 436

    Bulgyo sajeon 351a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 413b, 886a

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 587

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 318a/353

    Zenrin shōkisen (Mujaku Dōchū) 49/13

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 273

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 560d, 978c

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0391

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)1710c, (v.1-6)3831b, (v.9-10)307c

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 886-3, 886-3*1244-1

    Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa)

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 1993-09-01

    Updated: 2015-08-03