Amitabha

Amitabha (Amida) BuddhaThe Kamakura Daibutsu, a giant bronze statue of Amida Buddha, 1252, Kamakura, Japan.

Amitabha, the venerated savior buddha in Mahayana Buddhism, and particularly in the so-called Pure Land sects. As related in the Sukhavati-vyuha-sutras (the fundamental scriptures of the Pure Land sects), many ages ago a monk named Dharmakara made a number of vows, the 18th of which promised that, on his attaining buddhahood, all who had faith in him and who called upon his name would be reborn in his paradise and would reside there in bliss until they had attained enlightenment. Having accomplished his vows, Dharmakara reigned as the buddha Amitabha in the Western Paradise, called Sukhavati, the Pure Land.

Amitabha Buddha sits enthroned beneath a large flowering tree, surrounded by bodhisattvas, offerings, and celestial beings in an ornate Tibetan painting depicting the Western Pure Land.
Amitabha's Pure LandSukahavati, the Pure Land of Amitabha, brilliantly depicted on cloth, of the type commonly known as thangka. Amitabha is seated in the center, a tree of jewels and riches behind him, while demigods in the sky shower flowers. The eight great bodhisattvas sit below, and a the bottom courtyards sit among pools with lotuses, from which those devoted to him are reborn in his heavenly paradise. Distemper with gold on cloth, c. 1700, central Tibet; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Devotion to Amitabha came to the fore in China about 650 ce and from there spread to Japan, where it led in the 12th and 13th centuries to the formation of the Pure Land school and the True Pure Land school, both of which continue to have large followings today. Devotion to him is often illustrated through chanting his name. Depictions of Amitabha’s Pure Land, Sukhavati, and of Amitabha descending to welcome the newly dead are beautifully expressed in the raigō paintings of Japan’s late Heian period (897–1185) and in Tibetan Buddhist thankga paintings.

Amitabha as a savior figure was never as popular in Tibet and Nepal as he was in East Asia, but he is highly regarded in those countries as one of the five “self-born” buddhas (dhyani-buddhas) who have existed eternally. According to this concept, he manifested himself as the historical Buddha Gotama and as the bodhisattva (“buddha-to-be”) Avalokiteshvara. In this Tantric-influenced system of associations in Vajrayana Buddhism, Amitabha’s color is red, his posture one of meditation (dhyana-mudra), his mount the peacock, his consort Pandara, his element fire, his sacred syllable “hrih,” and his direction the west.

As a bestower of longevity, Amitabha is called Amitayus, or “Infinite Life.” In China and Japan the two names are often used interchangeably, but in Tibet the two forms are never confounded, and Amitayus is worshiped in a special ceremony for obtaining long life. He is depicted wearing ornaments and a crown and holding the ambrosia vase from which spill the jewels of eternal life.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Charles Preston.
Citation Information
Article Title: Amitabha
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 18 June 2026
Access Date: November 13, 2026