Glossary: Tendai

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Tendai (天台宗)

A Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism descended from the Chinese Tiantai (Lotus Sutra) school and originally brought to Japan by the Chinese monk Ganjin in the middle of the 8th century. However, it did not become widely accepted until the Japanese monk Saichou brought additional texts on Tiantai back from China and established the famed temple Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei. Saicho added elements from the Zen, Esoteric (mikkyou), and Vinaya Schools to Tiantai to form the Tendai teachings.