Five Tathāgatas

In Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, the Five Tathāgatas (Sanskrit: पञ्चतथागत, pañcatathāgata; Chinese: 五方佛; pinyin: Wǔfāngfó) or Five Wisdom Tathāgatas (Chinese: 五智如来; pinyin: Wǔzhì Rúlái), the Five Great Buddhas, the Five Dhyani Buddhas and the Five Jinas (Sanskrit for "conqueror" or "victor"), are five Buddhas which are often venerated together. Various sources provide different names for these Buddhas, though the most common today are: Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Vairocana, Amitābha, and Amoghasiddhi.

They are sometimes seen as emanations and representations of the five qualities of the Adi-Buddha or "first Buddha", which is associated with the Dharmakāya. Some sources also include this "first Buddha" as a sixth Buddha along with the five.

These five Buddhas are a common subject of Vajrayana mandalas and they feature prominently in various Buddhist Tantras. The Five Tathagathas is the primary object of realization and meditation in Shingon Buddhism, a school of Vajrayana Buddhism founded in Japan by Kūkai.

In Chinese Buddhism, veneration of the five Buddhas has dispersed from Chinese Esoteric Buddhism into other Chinese Buddhist traditions like Chan and Tiantai. They are regularly enshrined in many Chinese Buddhist temples and regularly invoked in rituals, such as the Liberation Rite of Water and Land and the Yoga Flaming Mouth ceremony (瑜伽焰口法會), as well as prayers and chants.

They are also sometimes called the "dhyani-buddhas", a term first recorded in English by Brian Houghton Hodgson, a British Resident in Nepal, in the early 19th century, and is unattested in any surviving traditional primary sources.