lama

UK/ˈlɑː.mə/US/ˈlɑː.mə/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,746 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: lamas

A lama is a priest of Tibetan or Mongolian Buddhism. A senior lama, the Dalai Lama, study under a lama.

The title means teacher and it is earned by long training, not held by every monk. The Dalai Lama's title adds a Mongolian word meaning ocean. Note that a lama has one l and a llama, the animal, has two, which is one of the neatest spelling traps in English.

Definitions of lama

1nounlamaA priest of Tibetan or Mongolian Buddhism.C1
“The old lama taught the young monks to meditate in the mountain monastery.”

lama is a religious teacher.

Where it comes from

Tibetan bla-ma means a superior one or teacher. The animal called a llama is an unrelated Quechua word.

bo
བླ་མ
English, today
lama

Borrowed from bo བླ་མ.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

lama in the wild

Along with the council of high lamas, he is in charge of seeking out the next Dalai Lama.
Panchen Lama
When a tulku passes away, a committee of senior lamas convenes to identify the reincarnation.
Tulku
A Western tulku, one who is born in the West and commonly of non-Tibetan ethnic heritage, is the recognized successor to a lama or dharma master.
Tulku
The Tibetan word la-ma means "high mother", and reflects the qualities of the person who is called a lama.
Lama
As such, the lama/guru can be seen as one of the Three Roots, a variant of the Three Jewels, alongside the yidam the dakini.
Lama

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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