The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2425 page)

739–834)
. Chinese Ch’an/Zen master, dharma-successor (has-su) of Shih-t’ou Hsi-chien. Nothing is known of his early life, beyond the fact that he studied
Confucianism
and planned to be a state official, but on his way was diverted by a Ch’an monk who advised him that it would be wiser to seek to be a buddha, and sent him to
Ma-tsu
. After his training with Shih-t’ou, he returned to Ma-tsu, and when asked what he had learnt, he sat on the shoulders of an image of
Mañju
r
. The monks were outraged, but Ma-tsu said, ‘My son, you are entirely natural’—hence his monastic name T’ien-jan, ‘the natural’. He remained well-known for his unconventional behaviour.

 
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Tan-huang
.

The oasis town in NW China, near which the caves of Mo-kao-k'u were found. These are the largest complex of Buddhist cultic caves, dating from about 5th cent. CE.

 
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Tan
uma
.

A group of Jewish
aggadic
midrashim
containing many midrashim attributed to Rabbi Tan
uma Bar Abba (late 4th cent. CE).
Tan
uma
is based on the triennial cycle of
Torah
reading observed in
Erez Israel
.

 
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see
SEICH
NO IE
.

 
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