A term used by the Gautama Buddha to refer to himself or other Buddhas in the Pali canon. It is used to define someone who knows and sees reality as it is and is beyond all transitory phenomena. Early Pali texts refer to seven Tathagatas or great Buddhas, whereas Vajrayana Buddhism refers to five Tathagata Buddhas. The etymology of the term is widely contested, but it is generally thought to have derived from the Pali words tatha and gata, meaning “one who has thus gone” or “one who has thus come.”