Vajrabodhi

Vajrabodhi (Ch.金剛智) (671–741) was an Indian Buddhist monk and esoteric Buddhist teacher in Tang China. He is one of the eight patriarchs in Shingon Buddhism.

Vajrabodhi was the second of three Vajrayana missionaries to eighth-century China. He was born of a South Indian brahmin family, and his father was a priest for the royal house. Vajrabodhi probably converted to Buddhism at the age of sixteen, although some accounts place him at the Buddhist institution of Nālandā at the age of ten.

He studied all varieties of Buddhism and was said to have studied for a time under the famous Buddhist logician Dharmakīrti. Under Santijnana, Vajrabodhi studied Vajrayāna teachings and was duly initiated into yoga.

Leaving India, Vajrabodhi traveled to Sri Lanka and Srivijaya (present-day Sumatra), where he apparently was taught a Vajrayāna tradition distinct from that taught at Nālandā. From Srivijaya he sailed to China via the escort of thirty-five Persian merchant-vessels, and by AD 720 was ensconced in the Jianfu Temple at the Chinese capital, Chang'an (present-day Xian). Accompanying him was his soon-to-be-famous disciple, Amoghavajra.