KṢITIGARBHA, called Dizang in China and Jizō in Japan, is, after Avalokiteśvara, the most important bodhisattva of Buddhist East Asia. Kṣitigarbha is also well known in Tibet. His name is usually interpreted to mean "receptacle (womb, storehouse) of the earth"; as such, he may be a Buddhist transformation of the Vedic earth goddess Prthivi.

Information about the cult of Kṣitigarbha in the esoteric and exoteric Buddhist traditions comes from a number of sūtras. Principal among these are two texts:

1. Dasheng daji dizang shilun jing (Mahāyāna Mahāsaṃnipata sūtra on Kṣitigarbha and the ten wheels; T.D. no. 411). This sūtra was translated into Chinese by Xuanzang (596?–664) in the year 651, but there may have been an earlier translation of the same Sanskrit original made about 400. This scripture is the only exoteric sūtra...