Om mani padme humn.int.

Etymology: < Sanskrit oṃ maṇipadme hūṃ, evocation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (see etymological note) < oṃ om n. (and int.) + maṇipadme , lit. ‘oh Maṇipadmā’, also interpreted as ‘oh jewel-lotus’ (after maṇi jewel, gem (see mani n.²) and padma lotus (see padma n.); compare etymological note and quot. 1848) + hūṃ , sacred syllable used in an invocation. Compare om n. (and int.), mani n.²Avalokiteśvara is considered the most important bodhisattva of Tibetan Buddhism. There has been much discussion of the true meaning of the original invocation. Traditional interpretations, such as ‘oh, the jewel in the lotus’, are misleading and misunderstand the feminine vocative singular of -padme as a masculine locative singular. The oldest version of the Sanskrit text associates the formula with padmā mudrā , or padmāṅkā mudrā , which appears to mean ‘a sign, marked with a lotus or jewel-lotus’, but it is not clear exactly what was envisaged by this. Probably the text had in mind a lotus-mark on the foot, hand, or finger of the bodhisattva, which would then leave sacred prints as relics, images, or amulets. However, the text itself became incomprehensible and the image was replaced by the concept of a female figure, Maṇipadmā, the physical manifestation of the male Avalokiteśvara, and by the invocation of ‘her’ name. Not fully naturalized in English. With the pronunciations given, compare variants listed at om n. (and int.) and the Sanskrit pronunciation, in which oṃ and hūṃ have long, nasalized vowels without any following m sound, the as of maṇipadme are short (/ʌ/), and the ṇ is retroflex. In Tibetan pronunciation, padme becomes /ˈpehme/, and hūṃ /huŋ/. O.E.D. Suppl. (1982) gives the partly naturalized pronunciation (ǭm mani padme hūm) /ɔːm mani padme hum/.