Bhaiṣajyaguru, Bhaiṣajyarāja, Dhanvantari: not to be confused
Three similar names, three different figures: a short guide so you are never mistaken in front of a statue or a book.
When you look for objects or books about the Medicine Buddha, you often meet similar names, sometimes confused. Here are the main ones.
Bhaiṣajyaguru, the Medicine Buddha
He is a Buddha: the one of the Medicine Master Sūtra, of the lapis lazuli pure land, blue, with a bowl and a myrobalan. In Chinese: Yaoshi Fo; in Japanese: Yakushi Nyorai; in Tibetan: Sangye Menla.
Bhaiṣajyarāja, the “king of remedies”
He is a bodhisattva, not a Buddha. He appears in the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 23, titled “The Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja”. The story tells how, in a past life, he made an extreme offering of his own body. In Chinese: Yaowang Pusa (藥王菩薩). His name is close (“Bhaiṣajya”, medicine), which is the source of the confusion.
Yaowang, the “king of physicians” in China
In Chinese popular religion “Yaowang” also names figures of medicine: one much honoured is the physician Sun Simiao (seventh century), after whom several temples are named. He is neither a Buddha nor a bodhisattva.
Dhanvantari
In Indian tradition Dhanvantari is the physician of the gods and a figure of Āyurveda, often venerated in Hinduism. He has no direct historical link with the Medicine Buddha, although the names relating to medicine look alike.
How to tell them apart
- A blue Buddha with a bowl and a plant: Bhaiṣajyaguru (Menla, Yakushi, Yaoshi).
- A bodhisattva of the Lotus Sūtra: Bhaiṣajyarāja.
- A Chinese physician honoured in a popular temple: Sun Simiao.
- A physician of the Indian gods: Dhanvantari.
In the catalogue we include only the first. See the names by country.
Sources
Lotus Sūtra, ch. 23 (trans. Kumārajīva); Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, entries “Bhaiṣajyarāja” and “Bhaiṣajyaguru”; Wikipedia, “Sun Simiao”.
Read the articleWhere to see the Medicine Buddha in museums around the world