page_title: Sanghyang Adi Buddha
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sanghyang Adi Buddha / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Tanka representing the Adi-Buddha Vajrasattva. Samantabhadra &amp; Samantabhadri, also considered Adi-Buddha, are above.
context_page_description: Sanghyang Adi Buddha is a concept of God in Indonesian Buddhism. This term was used by Ashin Jinarakkhita at the time of Buddhist revival in Indonesia in the mid 20th century to reconcile the first principle of the official philosophical foundation of Indonesia, i.e. "KeTuhanan Yang Maha Esa" that requires the belief in a supreme God, with Buddhism which strictly speaking does not believe in such monotheistic God. This concept is used by the Indonesian Buddhist Council, an organization that seeks to represent all Buddhist traditions in Indonesia such as Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.
  Adi Buddha is a term used in Tantric Buddhism to refer to the Primordial Buddha. The term Sanghyang Adi Buddha is agreed upon and used by the Indonesian Supreme Sangha and the Indonesian Buddhist Council as the designation for the God Almighty. This term is not found in Pāli Canon, but used in some old Indonesian Vajrayana texts such as Sanghyang Kamahayanikan.
context_section_description: The concept of Adi Buddha arose from the development of the Vajrayana which is the last stage of Mahayana Buddhism and which may have been influenced by close contact with Saivites (Hinduism). This development is found in Nepal and Java, while it originated from Bengal. This conception reached its full development in the literature of Kālacakra (Vajrayana Buddhism). Sir Charles Eliot on his Hinduism and Buddhism (III, 387) proposes that those development were the last effort of Middle East Buddhism to encounter the expansion of Islam by showed that monotheism may also be found inside Buddhism. The important and fundamental thing of this doctrine is that from this one primordial Buddha finally emanates the other Buddhas. Nevertheless, the disciples of Kālacakra are not theist in the sense of worshipping one Almighty God, but they identified the Adi Buddha differently according their own sects.
  It's hard to determine when or how the concept of Ādi Buddha or Paramādi Buddha first appeared. Csoma Körösi said that the name and system associated with it are closely related to Srikāla-cakra-tantra, a tantra that may contain Saivite inspiration, which arose in the 10th or 11th century AD. But, the term Ādi Buddha had first appeared in Nāmasangiti as the epithet of Mañjusri, a sacred text which is considered earlier than the 10th century because the comment of this text is estimated to be written at least from the 7th century AD.
  This concept was developed in the esoteric teaching of Tantra, though its genesis may be traced much earlier. The earliest sacred text may be  Namasangiti, a work thought to date from the 7th century AD. The other sacred texts are Guna Karanda Vyuha, Svayambhu Purana, Maha Vairocanabhisambodhi Sutra, Tattvasangraha Sutra, Guhya‐samaya Sutra, and Paramadi‐buddhoddhrta‐sri‐kalacakra Sutra. The sacred text from Indonesia are Namasangiti of Candrakirti from Srivijaya and Sanghyang Kamahayanikan from the era of the reign of Mpu Sindok (10th century AD).
caption: Tibetan Tanka representing the Adi-Buddha Vajrasattva. Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri, also considered Adi-Buddha, are above. Gouache on cloth.
exif: {}