Re: OT: Ill Bethisad

Amanda Babcock writes:
 > On Mon, Nov 04, 2002 at 07:41:10AM +0000, Mat McVeagh wrote:
 > > >From: Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
 > > >
 > > >On Sat, 2 Nov 2002 09:02:25 +0000 Mat McVeagh <matmcv@...>
 > > >writes:
 > > > > about Russia - the idea of Red (Great) Square being filled with
 > > > > Russian
 > > > > Buddhist fanatics chanting "Nam myoho renge kyo!" may be funny but
 > > >
 > > >What does that chant mean, btw?
 > > >
 > > No idea actually! There must be a Japanese speaker on here. It is a major
 > > Buddhist chant and is in Japanese; I presume it's Zen.
 >
 > Ok, I know Mat is nomail but -
 >
 > Isn't this chant Tibetan or something?  "Nam" can't be Japanese, and while
 > "renge" and "myoho" *could* be, they don't seem very likely.
 >
 > Amanda
 >

Properly, it should be "Namu myoho renge kyo" in Japanese
romanization.  From googling, the first word "nam" or "namu" is from
Sanskrit, and the rest from Chinese.  It's all in Japanese
pronunciation, though, and the chanting of the phrase is a feature of
the Nichiren sect, which is definitely Japanese.

http://www.camaraderie.org/nmrk.htm