Living Buddha: the honorific title given by Mongolian and Tibetan Buddhism to a person who has a successful practice and can be reincarnated according to his own wishes.

In fact, the term "living Buddha" does not exist in the standard terminology of Tibetan Buddhism. According to scholars' research, this common name first appeared in the Yuan Dynasty and existed in the Han Dynasty. The Tibetan language most corresponding to the word "living Buddha" is "Zhige", which means incarnation.

It is often called "Zhugu" (Tibetan) or "Hubile Khan" (Mongolian), which means "reincarnation" or "incarnation". Han people are used to calling them "living buddhas", which is actually inaccurate. They should be called "gods".

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Panchen Lama and Dalai Lama are two living Buddha systems of Gelug Sect (Yellow Sect) of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism believes that the Dalai Lama is a "monk-loving Buddha", that is, the incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva. The Panchen Lama is the incarnation of "Moon Ba Maw Buddha", namely Amitabha Buddha.

The title of the Dalai Lama began in A.D. 1578. In this year, Mongolian altan Khan gave Sonan Gyatso, the owner of the Gelugpa drepung monastery Temple, the title of "Wazir all-knowing Dalai Lama", from which the name of "Dalai Lama" came.

"Dalai" is Mongolian, meaning "the sea"; "Lama" is a Tibetan language, meaning "master". The title of the Dalai Lama became the proper name of the Dalai Lama system after it was conferred by the emperor shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty in A.D. 1653.

The title of Panchen Lama began in A.D. 1645. In this year, Khan of Gushi, Mongolia presented the title of "Panchen Bokedo" to Qujie of Lausanne, the master of Tashilhunpo Temple of Grupai. "Ban" is the abbreviation of Sanskrit "Panditha" (namely scholar); "Zen" is Tibetan, meaning "big", and the two words together mean "master".

In A.D. 17 13, Emperor Kangxi conferred the Panchen Lama as "Panchen Erdene" and "Erdene" was Manchu, meaning "Treasure". Since then, the title of the Panchen Lama has become the proper name of the Panchen Lama system.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia of living buddhas