a Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism
"The elderly lama led the morning prayer ceremony at the remote monastery high in the Himalayas."
llamas
"The farmer gathered his herd of llamas to move them to the higher pasture before the storm arrived."
A master of Tibetan Buddhism.
"While most tourists expect to see llamas, a few visitors were surprised to learn that the local farmers actually keep lama herds for wool."
Alternative form of llama
The word lama comes from Tibetan, where it originally meant a spiritual teacher or guru. It is derived from the root words bla, meaning "to be," and ma, meaning "mother."