Word.ws English Dictionary

tulku

tulku noun: a high-ranking lama who can choose the manner of his or her rebirth.

Noun

tulku (plural tulkus)

  1. (Tibetan) A high-ranking lama who can choose the manner of his or her rebirth.
    • The abbot is considered a tulku by Tibetans and called a living Buddha in Chinese — an especially revered figure who is believed to be the essence of a prominent religious leader.2009 April 25, Edward Wong, “Senior Tibetan Cleric Faces Prison in China”, in New York Times
    Synonyms:
    hutukhtu

Synonyms of tulku

Forms of tulku

pluraltulkus

Origin of tulku

Borrowed from Tibetan སྤྲུལ་སྐུ (sprul sku, “tulku”).

Questions about tulku

What does tulku mean?
Tulku means a high-ranking lama who can choose the manner of his or her rebirth.
What part of speech is tulku?
Tulku is a noun.
What is the plural of tulku?
The plural of tulku is tulkus.

Words near tulku in the dictionary

  1. Tulkara
  2. Tulkarem
  3. Tulkarm
  4. tulkas
  5. Tulkepaia
  6. tulku
  7. tulkus
  8. Tull
  9. Tulla
  10. Tullah
  11. Tullakool

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tulku (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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