Abbot (Buddhism)

This article is about abbots of Buddhist monasteries. For abbots of Christian monsteries, see Abbot.

Khen Rinpoche Nicholas Vreeland, the first western monk to be made abbot of a major Tibetan Buddhist monastery, Rato Dratsang, in Karnataka, India

In addition to its use in a Christian context, abbot is a term used in Anglophone countries to mean a monk who holds the position of administrator of a Buddhist monastery or large Buddhist temple.

The English word abbot is used instead of a number of words that exist in the languages of the various countries where Buddhism is or was historically well established.

In other languages

Chinese

in Chinese Chan Buddhist monasteries, one word for abbot is Fangzhang meaning "ten feet square", a reference to the size of Vimalakirti's stone room. Another Chinese word for abbot is Zhuchi, meaning dweller and upholder.

Japanese

The abbot of the Sōji-ji, temple of Zen Buddhism, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Japan is a Zenji (Zen master).

In Zen Buddhism, the most commonly used Japanese words for the abbot of a large Zen temple or Zen monastery are juji and choro.

Tibetan

The abbot of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery is known as the Khenpo. This means "the one who gives the monks vows". The abbot is addressed as, and referred to, as "Khen Rinpoche". Another word is Khenchen, which means senior khenpo.