Jambhala- Tibetan GodDeity"God of Wealth"
Also known as: Dzambhala, Namtose, and འཛམ་བཾ་ལ
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
Rotund golden deity of wealth who holds a jewel-spitting mongoose in one hand and a citron fruit overflowing with gems in the other. His image appears on merchant shrines, monastery altars, and household offering tables across the Tibetan world.
Mythology & Lore
The Mongoose
The mongoose cradled in Jambhala's left hand was once a nāga who hoarded treasure and resisted the dharma. The nāga surrendered its hoard, and the act of giving transformed it into an inexhaustible source of riches, vomiting jewels when pressed against Jambhala's body. In his right hand sits a citron fruit, also overflowing with gems. His body is golden and corpulent, not the lean form of an ascetic but the shape of one who has never needed to hoard.
Jambhala's roots lie in Kubera, the yaksha king who guards the earth's treasures in Hindu tradition. Buddhist tantra gave the wealth-lord a different charge: not a king sitting on his hoard but a bodhisattva pouring it out.
Five Colors
The Tibetan tradition knows five colored forms of Jambhala, each tied to a buddha family. Yellow Jambhala, the most widely practiced, sits heavy and golden on a lotus throne. Black Jambhala, the wrathful form, tramples hindrances underfoot and destroys poverty by force.