Abhiseka Ritual in Buddhist Uyghurs

Abstract

This study, consists of evaluations about the concept of abhiṣeka, which is the ceremony in which a student or Bodhisattvas enters a Buddhist community or the Buddhahood status by applying various techniques (dhāraṇī, mantra, mudrā, homa and samādhi, etc.) under the guidance of a religious master. Abhiṣeka is a ritual of ‘blessing’ the victory of the person who enters a sacred path as a practice of ‘pouring/sprinkling’, historically similar to the baptism ceremony of Christians. Peculiar to the Buddhist thought system, the Sanskrit abhiṣeka is a level that Bodhisattvas will achieve through various stages as a practice of ‘blessing’. It also corresponds to the expression Sanskrit bhūmi. Abhiṣeka, of which we have information about Mahāyāna and Esoteric Buddhism teachings, is one of the important concepts in the Buddhist religious life adopted by Uyghur Turks. In Uyghurs who adopt different religions (Manichaeaism, Buddhism etc.) they come into contact with the influence of various cultures, Sanskrit abhiṣeka was taken from the Tocharian A/B, and adapted to Turkish texts based on the Buddha religion as abišek, abıšık or abišik. Accordingly, this article aims at the reflections of this term in the Buddhist Uyghurs on the basis of the conceptual value of the concept of abhiṣeka in the Buddhist thought system. In these evaluations centred on the teachings of Mahāyāna and Esoteric Buddhism, the Uyghur text in which the concept of abhiṣeka is mentioned and the translation of this text, the conceptual value of abhiṣeka expression has been tried to be shown within the framework of terms related to Buddhist terminology.