Bodhisattva Samantabhadra

In many Chinese and Japanese temples, she is found in the trinity with Sakyamuni Buddha and Manjusri. Imageries of Samantabhadra usually show her seated on a white elephant in various ways and holding a lotus flower or a scroll or book. The elephant, normally in a standing posture, may be crouching and may either have three heads or one head with six tusks.

Samantabhadra 普賢菩薩 is often called the Bodhisattva with the greatest practices, a name that befits the practice of her own Ten Great Vows. As Dhamma-farers, we are encouraged to recollect these vows in our daily recitation and put them into practice as far as possible in our everyday life.

In 399 CE, a temple devoted to Samantabhadra was built in Mount Emei in China’s Sichuan Province by a Chinese Buddhist monk. Since then Mount Emei has become the sacred site of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people of all ages, from all over world, flock to visit this place of pilgrimage. It was made a UNESCO world heritage site in 1996.