Thirty-five Confession Buddhas

The Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas (Wylie: gsheg lha so lnga) are known from the Sutra of the Three Heaps (Sanskrit: Triskandhadharmasutra; Tib. phung po gsum pa'i mdo), popular in Tibetan Buddhism. This Mahāyāna sutra actually describes the practice of purification by confession and making prostrations to these Buddhas, and is part of the larger Stack of Jewels Sutra (Sanskrit: Ratnakutasutra; Tibetan: dkon mchog brtsegs pa'i mdo).

The 35 Buddhas of Confession
A Mahayana illustration of 35 Buddhas

In Tibet there were two distinct traditions of the Thirty-five Confession Buddhas which arose from the two main Indian schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism: one from the Madhyamaka school founded by Nāgārjuna, and the other from the Yogācāra school founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu. Both of these schools developed their own rituals for conferring the Bodhisattva vows, each incorporating a visualization of the Thirty-five Buddhas along with the recitation of the confession from the Triskhandhadharma Sutra.[1]

List of Names

The names of the 35 Buddhas of confession differ depending on the sutra. A common classification in Tibetan Buddhism is as follows:[2]

SanskritTibetanTibetan pronunciationEnglish
Śākyamuniཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་shakya tup-paShakyamuni
Vajrapramardīརྡོ་རྗེ་སྙིང་པོས་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པdorjé nyingpö raptu jompaComplete Foe Destroyer by Vajra Essence means
Ratnārśiṣརིན་ཆེན་འོད་འཕྲོrinchen ö-troPrecious Radiant Light
Nāgeśvararājaཀླུ་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོluwang gi gyelpoKing, Lord of the Nagas
Vīrasenaདཔའ་བོའི་སྡེpawö-déArmy of Heroes
Vīranandīདཔའ་བོ་དགྱེསpawö-gyéDelighted Hero
Ratnāgniརིན་ཆེན་མེrinchen-méJewel Fire
Ratnacandraprabhaརིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་འོདrinchen da-öJewel Moonlight
Amoghadarśiམཐོང་བ་དོན་ཡོདtongwa dönyöMeaningful Vision
Ratnacandraརིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་བrinchen dawaJewel Moon
Vimalaདྲི་མ་མེད་པdrima mépaStainless One
Śūradattaདཔའ་སྦྱིནpa-jinHeroic Giving
Brahmaཚངས་པtsangpaPure One
Brahmadattaཚངས་པས་སྦྱིན་tsangpé jinGiving of Purity
Varuṇaཆུ་ལྷchu lhaWater God
Varuṇadevaཆུ་ལྷའི་ལྷchu lhaé lhaGod of the Water Gods
Bhadraśrīདཔལ་བཟངpel-zangGlorious Goodness
Candanaśrīཙན་དན་དཔལtsenden pelGlorious Sandalwood
Anantatejasགཟི་བརྗིད་མཐའ་ཡསziji tayéInfinite Splendour
Prabhāśrīའོད་དཔལö pelGlorious Light
Aśokaśrīམྱ་ངན་མེད་པའི་དཔལ་nyangen mépé pelSorrowless Glory
Nārāyaṇa སྲེད་མེད་ཀྱི་བུsémé-kyi buNon attached to sons
Kusumaśrīམེ་ཏོག་དཔལmétok pelGlorious Flower
Tathāgata Brahmajyotivikrīḍitābhijñaདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཚངས་པའི་འོད་ཟེར་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པ་མངོན་པར་མཁྱེན་པdézhin shekpa tsangpé özer nampar rölpa ngönpar khyenpaTathagata of Pure Light Rays Manifesting Complete Omniscience
Tathāgata Padmajyotirvikrīditābhijñaདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་པདྨའི་འོད་ཟེར་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པས་མངོན་པར་མཁྱེན་པdézhin shekpa pémé özer nampar rölpé ngönpar khyenpaTathagata of Lotus Light Rays Manifesting Complete Omniscience
Dhanaśrīནོར་དཔལnorpelGlorious Wealth
Smṛtiśrīདྲན་པའི་དཔལdrenpé pelGlorious Mindfulness
Suparikīrtitanāmagheyaśrīམཚན་དཔལ་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས་པtsenpel shintu yongsu drakpaExcessively Well Renowned Glorious Name
Indraketudhvajarājaདབང་པོའི་ཏོག་གི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོwangpö tok-gi gyeltsen-gyi gyelpoKing of the Victory Banner that Crowns the Sovereign
Suvikrāntaśrīཤིན་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་གནོན་པའི་དཔལshintu nampar nönpé pelGlorious One Who Fully Subdues
Yuddhajayaགཡུལ་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བyül lé nampar gyelwaUtterly Victorious in Battle
Vikrāntagāmīརྣམ་པར་གནོན་པའི་གཤེགས་པའི་དཔལnampar nönpé shekpé pelGlorious Transcendence Through Subduing
Samantāvabhāsavyūhaśrīཀུན་ནས་སྣང་བ་བཀོད་པའི་དཔལkün-né nangwa köpé pelGlorious Manifestations Illuminating All
Ratnapadmavikramīརིན་ཆེན་པདྨའི་རྣམ་པར་གནོན་པRinchen padmé nampar nönpaJewel Lotus who Subdues All
Ratnapadmasupraṭiṣṭhita-śailendrarājaདེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་པདྨ་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་བཞུགས་པའི་རི་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོDézhin shekpa drachompa yangdakpar dzokpé sanggyé rinpoché dang padama la raptu zhukpé riwang gi gyelpoTathagata All-subduing Jewel Lotus, Arhat, Perfectly Completed Buddha, King of the Lord of the Mountains Firmly Seated on Jewel and Lotus

Iconography

The Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas are a common subject depicted in Himalayan Buddhist paintings and sculpture. There are at least three different iconographic systems for depicting the Thirty-Five Buddhas, based on the different descriptions found in ritual texts and commentaries by different authors including Nagarjuna,[nb 1] Sakya Paṇḍita, Jonang Tāranātha and Je Tsongkhapa.

The three main iconographic traditions are:

  1. The system attributed to Nagarjuna where the 35 Buddhas are depicted with different objects in their hands,
  2. The system of Sakya Paṇḍita where the 35 Buddhas are depicted with hand gestures only (no hand objects), and
  3. The system based on Je Tsongkhapa's personal vision of the 35 Buddhas, where only some of the Buddhas have objects in their hands.[1]

See also

Notes
  1. Probably not the Nagarjuna who founded the Madhyamaka school but a later teacher with the same name

References
  1. Watt, Jeff (July 2011). "Thirty-five Confession Buddhas Main Page". Himalayan Art Resources. Retrieved 2016-07-20.
  2. "Thirty-five buddhas of confession". Rigpa Shedra Wiki. Rigpa. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
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