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fanbei

fanbei noun: in Chinese Buddhism, refers to Buddhist chanting, hymns, and liturgical music used in rituals and ceremonies. It plays a crucial role in spiritual practice, fostering meditation, reverence, and creating a sacred atmosphere in temples.

Noun

fanbei

  1. In Chinese Buddhism, refers to Buddhist chanting, hymns, and liturgical music used in rituals and ceremonies. It plays a crucial role in spiritual practice, fostering meditation, reverence, and creating a sacred atmosphere in temples.
    • The earliest form of Budhist music was fanbei; fan being the music of Mahabrahma and bei being clearness and purity.2004, Chi-Ying Fu, Zhiying Fu, Handing Down the Light: The Biography of Venerable Master Hsing Yun, Buddha's Light Publishing, page 65
    • Monastic liturgical singing is known as fanbei, which may be loosely translated as ‘Indian singing’.2005, “Buddhist music”, in Edward Lawrence Davis, editor, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 73, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 52, column 2

Origin of fanbei

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 梵唄 /梵呗 (fànbài). * 梵 (Fàn) – Derived from the Sanskrit word "Brahman" (ब्रह्मन्), meaning "sacred," "pure," or "divine." In the Buddhist context, it refers to things associated with the sacred or the transcendent. * 呗 (Bèi) – A phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit term "bhāṣya" (भाष्य), meaning "chant" or "recitation." Together, 梵呗 (Fanbei) can be translated as "sacred chanting" or "Brahma chant."

Questions about fanbei

What does fanbei mean?
Fanbei means in Chinese Buddhism, refers to Buddhist chanting, hymns, and liturgical music used in rituals and ceremonies. It plays a crucial role in spiritual practice, fostering meditation, reverence, and creating a sacred atmosphere in temples.
What part of speech is fanbei?
Fanbei is a noun.

Words near fanbei in the dictionary

  1. fanbacks
  2. fanbase
  3. fanbases
  4. fanbearer
  5. fanbearers
  6. fanbei
  7. fanbelt
  8. fanbelts
  9. fanblog
  10. fanblogs
  11. fanboat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fanbei (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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