I'm cringing really hard right now

[cashew]

So, in Chinese, the Vidyadhara are called 持明. At first, I thought that's just the Chinese translation of "Vidyadhara". Except, no. 持明 is historically a translation of the Sanskrit धारणी，dhāraṇī, which is "to hold the knowledge/wisdom" (according to wiki), aka, it's a chant memory aid. Which makes sense, because the literal translation of 持明 is "hold the light".

If this wiki is correct, through the spread of Buddhism, 持明 came to refer to Vidyadhara. Instead of referring to the dharani chants, it referred to the Vidyamantra instead (which was an alternate name), and then in Tibetan Buddhism became the "Knowledge Holders" (source), the Vidyadhara people.

And so, that really convoluted path was me figuring out 持明 was a Tibetan Buddhism reference.

Hence, cringe. The region of Tibet was officially incorporated under the Yuan dyansty (aka under Mongolian rule), as previously Tibet had a vassal relationship with the political entity that is China (look, multiple dynasties and constantly changing borders over thousands of years makes talking about this stuff difficult, OK?). So knowing this reference makes me wish they picked something else because...wow, do we really want to be poking this hornet's nest? Really?! (But also I can understand why the Vidyadhara have their own government inside Luofu, because Tibet has always had autonomous rule under whichever government representing China.)