# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/bodhidharma
# Generated: 2026-09-02T00:25:12.239Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/bodhidharma"
name: "Bodhidharma"
slug: "bodhidharma"
description: "A monk whose face everyone knows and whose life almost no one can verify. Bodhidharma brought meditation practice from somewhere west into 5th or 6th century China, became the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism, and later — centuries after his death — got retrofitted as the founder of Shaolin kung fu."
tagline: "Indian-Chinese philosopher and Buddhist Monk"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/BodhidharmaYoshitoshi1887.jpg"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Academics"
  slug: "academics"
profileType:
  name: "Academic"
  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "483"
deathDate: "540"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           59.41
  momentum:             1.458079414972096
  historical:           25.929096
  currentAttention:     16.67857142857143
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  60
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Academics"
    slug: "academics"
  - name: "Academic"
    slug: "academic"
  - name: "Philosophy"
    slug: "philosophy"
  - name: "Medieval Era"
    slug: "medieval-era"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q187172"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ba.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%85%D0%B8%D0%B4%D1%85%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B0"
    title: "Бодхидхарма"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%85%D0%B8%D0%B4%D1%85%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B0"
    title: "Бодхидхарма"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AE"
    title: "বোধিধর্ম"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ckb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%DB%86%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%A7"
    title: "بۆدیدارما"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B3dhidharma"
    title: "Bódhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodidarmo"
    title: "Bodidarmo"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AF%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%A7"
    title: "بودی‌دارما"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%91%D7%95%D7%93%D7%94%D7%99%D7%93%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%9E%D7%94"
    title: "בודהידהרמה"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE"
    title: "बोधिधर्म"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B3dhidharma"
    title: "Bódhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Bodhidharma"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://es.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bodhidharma"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%A7"
    title: "بودهيدهارما"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  The sources can't agree where he came from (Central Asia? South India? Third son of a king?) or when he arrived (420s? 500s?). What's consistent: he showed up from the Western Regions during the age of the Northern Wei, taught meditation rooted in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, and became the figure through whom Chan Buddhism entered China. Later traditions drew a lineage stretching back 28 generations to the Buddha himself. The kung fu origin story came much later — 17th century texts tied him to martial exercises, and the 20th century made it canonical. In art he's rendered as the bearded, wide-eyed outsider, ill-tempered and unmistakably foreign, a figure more icon than biography.