Terma (Tibetan: གཏེར་མ་, Wylie: gter ma) means "treasure" in Tibetan.
According to Tibetan tradition, Termas were hidden by Padmasambhava in the eighth century to be discovered in later times when there was sufficient ability to understand them.
Termas can be texts or objects and can be hidden in places on the physical or mental plane. The Tertons are specialists in the discovery of Termas, the two most famous exponents in the 20th century being Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Chogyam Trumgpa Rinpoche.
The Terma tradition is particularly important within the Nyingma school.
The Bardo Todol, also known as the "Tibetan Book of the Dead", is a Terma of the mental type.
In 1969 Chogyam Trumgpa Rinpoche received the terma text called The Sadhana of the Majamudra, while practicing a solitary retreat at the sacred monastery of Paro Taktsang Cliff, Bhutan.
In 1976 Chogyam Trumgpa Rinpoche received the first terma of what would become the Shambhala terma series, which is the source from which he built the series of courses called Shamhala Training.
