Four continents Page

Image:Four Continents.jpg|frame|An illustration of our [[world system]]
Four continents (Tib. གླིང་བཞི་, ling shyi, Wyl. gling bzhi) — the four island-continents (Skt. dvīpa; Tib. གླིང་, Wyl. gling) which surround Mount Meru according to the cosmology of the Abhidharma. They are:

#Purvavideha in the East, which is semi-circular and white in colour;
#Jambudvipa in the South, which is trapezoidal and blue (this is the continent we human beings live in);
#Aparagodaniya in the West, which is circular and ruby red; and
#Uttarakuru in the North, which is square and green.

Each of the four continents is flanked by two subcontinents (Skt. kṣudradvīpāni; Tib. གླིང་ཕྲན་, ling tren; Wyl. gling phran) of the same shape (see eight subcontinents).

Apart from the Chamara subcontinent of Jambudvipa, which is inhabited by rakshasa demons, all the other island-continents are inhabited by human beings of different characteristics, life styles and life-spans. Each continent also has a specific attribute (see four attributes of the four continents).

Four continents Page

Further Reading