Home›Buddhist Deities›Worshipped InBrowse ByWorshipped InThis page groups deities by the religion whose adherents actively worship them, connecting a god to the living or historical community that maintains their cult. Wikipedia defines cult, in the religious sense, as "the care (Latin: cultus) owed to deities or saints and their temples, shrines, or churches." Browsing this way lets a visitor see every deity that belongs to one religion's worship, rather than reading about gods religion by religion.FactsLearn MoreWorshipped InSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsAttestationEra of AttestationWell-attestedInherited devas appear in the earliest canonical strata; the celestial buddhas and bodhisattvas emerge with the Mahayana sutras around the turn of the era; the wrathful tantric deities from about the seventh century CE. All remain in worship. 2Veneration TodayWell-attestedVenerated today across the Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. 2OverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedCelestial and enlightened figures venerated across the Buddhist world: buddhas and bodhisattvas, tantric deities and protectors, and devas inherited from Indian and local pantheons. Buddhism posits no creator god and the historical Buddha is not one. The grouping is a convenience of this atlas rather than a category the tradition uses. 2DirectoryCategoryWell-attestedDeities 1StatusStanding as a Comparative CategoryWell-attestedCalling buddhas, bodhisattvas and protectors deities imports a category Buddhist doctrine does not use. The tradition's own classes - buddha, bodhisattva, deva, dharmapala - do not map onto one another, and none of them maps onto the word god. 2Learn MoreThe divine figures of Buddhism This group gathers the celestial and enlightened figures venerated across the Buddhist world. Classical Buddhism does not posit a creator god, and the historical Buddha is remembered as an awakened teacher rather than a deity; yet the tradition developed a vast pantheon of buddhas, bodhisattvas, protectors and inherited gods, especially in its Mahayana and Vajrayana forms. The browser will find cosmic buddhas such as Amitabha and Vairocana, the compassion-bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin, Chenrezig) and the wisdom-bodhisattva Manjushri, the future buddha Maitreya, wrathful protectors, and devas absorbed from Hindu and local traditions. Provenance and school (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana) shape which figures appear and how they are understood.Worshipped InFilter Results1 entryAdherents Today MaximumAll324,000,000 (1)Adherents Today MinimumAll324,000,000 (1)Basis of the Membership FigureAllIndependent Survey (1)Scholarly or Demographic Estimate (1)Establishment StatusAllVaries by Province (1)FounderAllSiddhartha Gautama, the Buddha (1)How the Expectation Is EnforcedAllCustomary Norm (1)Membership Figure As OfAll2010-01-01 (1)2012-12-18 (1)2020-01-01 (1)Origin Period End YearAll400 BCE (1)Origin Period Start YearAll500 BCE (1)Practice StatusAllLiving, and practised in varied local forms (1)Status TodayAllLiving tradition, practised today (1)TheologyAllNon-theistic: no creator god is central (1)Show ResultsBuddhismWorshipped In33 entriesSources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 12. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhismtier 1Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press, 2014s.v. deva; s.v. bodhisattvaView the SourceDivinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.