[Buddha-l] Buddhist words for "Buddhist"

Curt Steinmetz curt at cola.iges.org
Tue Jan 27 10:16:24 MST 2009


In Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, and/or any other language from a 
culture with a well-established "mainstream" Buddhist tradition, is 
there a consistent terminology of religious identification that 
Buddhists use to refer to themselves (and to distinguish themselves from 
the followers of other religions)?

The traditional word for what we denote in English as "Buddhism" is, of 
course, "Buddhadharma". What I am asking is whether or not anyone knows 
of one or more equivalent noun(s) for an adherent of the Buddhadharma - 
preferably ones that map as neatly to "Buddhist" as "Buddhadharma" does 
to "Buddhism"?

Am I overlooking something obvious here? It wouldn't be the first time.....

Curt


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