Moheyan

Moheyan

Heshang Moheyan (和尚摩訶衍; Wade-Giles:Ho-shang Mo-ho-yen; Héshang Móhēyǎn or Hvashang Moheyan in Tibetan sources) was a late 8th century Chan monk associated with the Northern School and famous for representing Chan vs. Indian Buddhism in a debate that is supposed to have set the course of Tibetan Buddhism. Hva-shang is a Tibetan approximation of the Chinese hoshang, meaning monk. Hoshang in turn comes from the Sanskrit title upadhyaya.

An iconographic thangka depiction of Moheyan is held in the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art (SAMA) collection, St. Francis College, Loretto, Pennsylvania.