On the Symbol of Sexual Embrace Yab Yum in Tantric Turkish Buddhism

Abstract

As a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, which emerged from Tibet in the VIIth century AD and spread to neighboring and distant geographies from Tibet, is a branch of Buddhism that aims to enlightenment through meditation and magic. It is also known as Tibetan Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism or Esoteric Buddhism, which aims to purify the person through various methods in the state of meditation with teaching techniques such as mantra, dhāraṇī, maṇḍala and mudrā. Tibetan Buddhism, which steered the tradition of XIVth century Central Asian Buddhism, visualized various rituals with both various depictions and painting and sculpture art, and especially reflected this sexual symbolism such as sexual intercourse and sexual embrace in the personality of female gods, female Buddhas, female Bodhisattvas and protective Deities (yidams). The Sexual Embrace, a product of Tantric Sex symbolism, is described by the Tibetan term yab yum. This term describes the embrace of Buddha-Mother and Buddha-Father as the primordial union of wisdom and compassion. Sexual Embrace, which is also seen in Buddhist Uyghurs, is understood by the use of the words ög qaŋ, ög t(ä)ŋri qızı, quč- and qučmaq in the descriptions in the texts of Berliner Turfantexte VII and Berliner Turfantexte XXXVI. Accordingly, in the first part of this study, which consists of two parts, the religious value of the Tibetan yab yum expression is shown in detail by including the opinions of various researchers, the appearance of the Tibetan yab yum form in Buddhist Uyghurs, which is theoretically informed, is discussed in the second part and responds to this sexual symbolism. The narrations are tried to be shown iconographically with pictures.