How many Buddhist deities are there?
Many hundreds of meditational Buddhas/deities or better ‘Yidams’ are found in Tibetan Buddhism alone. There are initiation series where in one go hundreds of empowerments are given into individually different meditation Buddhas. Then there are Buddhas of the past; in the current universe there were 3 before Shakyamuni Buddha, but there were uncountable universes before that with their own Buddhas. The word gods and deities are actually very confusing, as there are many different types possible. In the Tibetan, the word ‘Lha’ can indicate a Buddha (like the historical Shakyamuni Buddha), a meditational deity/yidam, but also a local spirit and worldly gods. To add to that confusion, most well-known deities like Chenrezig/Avalokiteshvara, Tara and Manjushri are not only considered disciples of the Buddha, but also Bodhisattvas and Buddhas and meditational Buddhas. Especially in the Vajrayana (Buddhist tantra), one meditates and possibly prays to the meditational Buddhas, but the practice
