Urna

The urna on the Amitābha Great Buddha of Kamakura
Translations of
Urna
Sanskritऊर्णा
(IAST: ūrṇā)
Paliउण्ण
(uṇṇa)
Burmeseဥဏ္ဏ
(MLCTS: unna.)
Chinese白毫
(Pinyin: báiháo)
Japanese白毫
(Rōmaji: byakugō)
Khmerឧណ្ណា
(UNGEGN: ʼŏnna)
Korean백호
(RR: baekho)
Laoອຸນາ
(ʼunā)
Tibetanམཛོད་སྦུས་
(Wylie: mdzod spu)
Thaiอุณา
(RTGS: ùnaa)
Vietnamesebạch mao tướng
Glossary of Buddhism

In Buddhist art and culture, the urna (Sanskrit: ūrṇā, ūrṇākeśa or ūrṇākośa, lit. 'hair treasure') is a spiral or circular mark placed on the forehead of Buddhist images as an auspicious sign.

As set out in the Lakkhana Sutta (Discourse on Marks), the ūrṇā is the thirty-first physical characteristic of the Buddha.

The ūrṇā is generally interpreted as a whorl of white hair which marks a Buddha as a great being (mahāpuruṣa). In the Mahayana sutras, the Buddha is often depicted as shining light out of his ūrṇā to illuminate distant world systems. This light became an object of meditation in Mahayana Buddhism.

The ūrṇā is often seen on Buddhist sculptures from the 2nd century CE onwards. The ūrṇā remains part of standard Buddhist iconography today, often depicted as a gem placed slightly above and between the eyebrows of a Buddha or a bodhisattva.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Buswell, Robert Jr; Lopez, Donald S. Jr., eds. (2013). "ūrṇākeśa". A Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691157863.
  2. 1 2 "The Lost Buddhas: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from Qingzhou". Asian Art. April 14, 2012. Archived from the original on June 24, 2015. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  3. ↑ Stratton, Carol (2004). Buddhist Sculpture of Northern Thailand. Serindia Publications. p. 50. ISBN 9781932476095.
  4. ↑ Holt, John Clifford; Kinnard, Jacob N.; Walters, Jonathan S. (2012). Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and the Religious Cultures of South and Southeast Asia. SUNY Press. p. 191. ISBN 9780791487051.
  5. ↑ Rhodes, Robert (2007). "Ōjōyōshū, Nihon Ōjō Gokuraku-ki, and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 34. doi:10.18874/jjrs.34.2.2007.249-270.