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In Buddhist thought, a bodhisattva (Hindi, Devanagari: बोधिसत्व; Burmese: ဗောဓိသတ်;Sinhalese:බෝධිසත්ව ; Chinese: 菩薩; pinyin: púsà; Japanese pronunciation: bosatsu; Korean pronunciation: bosal; Vietnamese: bồ tát; Khmer:ពោធិសត្វ; Thai: โพธิสัตว์; Tibetan: སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་གཤམ་གསལ།) is a being who is dedicated to achieving complete Buddhahood. Conventionally, the term is applied to beings with a high degree of enlightenment. Bodhisattva literally means a "bodhi (enlightenment) being" in Pali and Sanskrit. Mahayana practitioners have historically lived in many other countries that are now predominantly Hindu or Muslim; remnants of reverence for bodhisattvas has continued in some of these regions.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of bodhisattvas primarily respected in Buddhism.