Yamantaka- Buddhist GodDeity"Destroyer of Death"
Also known as: Vajrabhairava, Daiitoku Myōō, Gshin rje gshed, Dàwēidé Míngwáng, and 大威徳明王
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Description
When Yama, Lord of Death, rampaged through Tibet killing without limit, the gentle bodhisattva Manjushri took a form more terrible than death itself: a buffalo-headed god with nine heads and thirty-four arms. Yama submitted. He had met his destroyer.
Mythology & Lore
Conquering the Lord of Death
Yama, the Lord of Death, broke loose and swept through Tibet, killing every being in his path. The bodhisattva Manjushri, who in all other forms holds his sword with serene calm, took on a shape that matched Yama's terror and exceeded it. He rose as Yamantaka with a blue buffalo head like Yama's own, but where Yama had one head, Yamantaka had nine. Where Yama had two arms, Yamantaka had thirty-four. He seized the Lord of Death and forced him to submit. Yama became a protector of the Dharma, bound to serve the teaching he had tried to devour.
The Form
Sculptors and painters gave Yamantaka the most complex form in Buddhist art. In his full manifestation as Vajrabhairava, the nine heads stack upward with a peaceful Manjushri face at the top: the calm wisdom that generated this fury. He embraces his consort Vajravetali and tramples figures beneath his sixteen legs. Flames surround him. In Japanese esoteric Buddhism, where he is called Daiitoku Myōō, the form simplifies to six faces, six arms, and six legs astride a white water buffalo. He sits among the Five Wisdom Kings in the Womb Realm mandala, flanking Fudō Myōō.
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