Skt., linga, lingam: sign, symbol, phallus
Lingam, Thai version.
Temple of Tap-Tun, Bangkok
First and foremost, lingam is a Sanskrit term for the statues and images that are the sign and symbol of the god Shiva's genital organ. Based on this, is also used as a term of reverence for the phallus - comparable to the female yoni
The thousands of lingas one finds throughout India and Nepal, on almost every street corner and in every village square, are worshipped even today as sacred symbols of Shiva (the destroyer aspect in the all-male Vedic trinity); most especially the twelve sacred jyotirlinga.
People kiss and touch such statues, which are generally sculpted from stone, and they offer rice, flowers, or fruit to them and will often color them with red ocher.
The Gupta-sadhana Tantra states that
infinite result is obtained by worship of a Sivalinga that should be made of crystal etc.,
but never of clay.
[Banerjee, S. C. A Brief History of Tantra Literature. Calcutta, 1988. p.187]
Sometimes a lingam is represented together with its female equivalent, the yoni, and such an image is then called yonilinga.
Throughout these pages we have, with a few exceptions such as in the discussion of phallic worship, referred to the male organ of generation and pleasure by this Indian term.
Follows a list of Tibetan synonyms and a few secret ‘code words’ that are frequently used in the Indo-Tibetan realm:
More terms for the lingam can be found in our discussion of Japanese Tantra, where one has another set of expressions, ranging from Listless to King.