Names of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in six languages

January 18, 2023

I predominantly practice Buddhism in Korean, as most of the Buddhist texts and resources I have are published here in Korea. However I often do research on Buddhism in English as well, as Buddhism dealt in the English world is more focused on philosophical approaches unlike mainstream Korean Buddhism which puts more emphasis on spiritual faith, and I often find the Buddhist terminologies between different languages rather confusing. Buddhist terms in Korean are based on words of Chinese origin, while English uses Buddhist terms that root from Sanskrit and Pali. So to lessen this confusion I made a small list of the names of a few Buddhas and Bodhisattvas labeled in six different languages.

Korean	Chinese	English	Sanskrit	Pali	Tibetan
석가모니불	釋迦牟尼佛 shì jiā móu ní fó	The Buddha Siddhartha Gautama	सिद्धार्थ गौतम siddhārtha gautama	siddhattha gotama	བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས bcom ldan ‘das (from Sasnskrit bhagavān)
비로자나불	毘盧遮那佛 pí lú zhē nà fó 大日如来 dà rì rú lái 大日覺王 dà rì jué wáng	Vairocana	वैरोचन vairocana		རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད rnam par snang mdzad
아미타불	阿彌陀佛 ā mí tuó fó	Amitabha	अमिताभ amitābha		འོད་དཔག་མེད ‘od dpag med སྣང་བ་མཐའ་ཡས snang ba mtha’ yas
약사여래 약사유리광여래	藥師如來 yào shī rú lái 藥師佛 yào shī fó 藥師瑠璃光如來 yào shī liú lí guāng rú lái	Bhaisajyaguru	भैषज्यगुरु bhaiṣajyaguru भैषज्यगुरुवैदुर्यप्रभाराज bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabhā-rāja		སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་བླ sangs rgyas sman bla
미륵불 자씨	彌勒佛 mí lè fó 慈氏 cí shì	Maitreya	मैत्रेय maitreya	metteya	བྱམས་པ byams pa བྱམས་པ་མགོན་པོ byams pa mgon po
관세음보살 관자재보살	觀世音菩薩 guān shì yīn pú sà 觀音菩薩 guān yīn pú sà 觀自在菩薩 guān zì zài pú sà	Avalokitesvara Avalokiteshvara Guanyin (from 觀音)	अवलोकितस्वर avalokiteśvara		སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས spyan ras gzigs
보현보살	普賢菩薩 pǔ xián pú sà	Samantabhadra	समन्तभद्र samantabhadra		ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ kun tu bzang po
문수보살	文殊菩薩 wén shū pú sà	Manjushri	मञ्जुश्री mañjuśrī		འཇམ་དཔལ་དབྱངས ‘jam dpel dbyang
지장보살	地藏菩薩 dì cáng pú sà	Kshitigarbha	क्षितिगर्भ kṣitigarbha		ས་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ sa yi snying po