Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Dharmapala
Summary
A dharmapāla (धर्मपाल, , , 達磨波羅, 護法善神, 護法神, 諸天善神, 諸天鬼神, 諸天善神諸大眷屬, Hộ Pháp) is a type of wrathful god in Buddhism. The name means "dharma protector" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapālas are also known as the Defenders of the Justice (Dharma), or the Guardians of the Law. There are two kinds of dharmapala, Worldly Guardians (lokapala) and Wisdom Protectors (jnanapala). Only Wisdom Protectors are enlightened beings.
A protector of Buddhist dharma is called a dharmapala. They are typically wrathful deities, depicted with terrifying iconography in the Mahayana and tantric traditions of Buddhism. The wrathfulness is intended to depict their willingness to defend and guard Buddhist followers from dangers and enemies. The Aṣṭagatyaḥ (the eight kinds of nonhuman beings) is one category of dharmapālas, which includes the Garuda, Deva, Naga, Yaksha, Gandharva, Asura, Kinnara and Mahoraga.
In Vajrayana and thangka depictions, dharmapala are fearsome beings, often with many heads, many hands, or many feet. Dharmapala often have blue, black or red skin, and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Although dharmapala have a terrifying appearance, they only act in a wrathful way for the benefit of sentient beings.
The devotional worship of dharmapālas in the Tibetan tradition is traceable to early 8th-century.
There are many different dharmapalas in Tibetan Buddhism. Each school has its own principle dharmapalas and most monasteries have a dedicated dharmapāla which was originally comparable to a genius loci. The many forms of Mahakala are emanations of Avalokiteshvara. Kalarupa and Yamantaka are considered by practitioners to be emanations of Manjushri the Bodhisattva of Wisdom.
Principal wisdom protector dharmapalas include:
Prana Atma (Tib. Begtse)
Ekajaṭī (Tib. ral chig ma)
Mahakala (Tib. Nagpo Chenpo)
Shri Devi (Tib. Palden Lhamo)
Yamaraja/Dharmaraja/Kalarupa (Tib. Shinje)
Other dharmapalas include:
Citipati
Mahakali
Yamantaka (Tib. Shinje Shed)
Hayagriva (Tib. Tamdrin)
Vaisravana (Tib. Kubera)
Rāhula (Tib. gza)
Vajrasādhu (Tib.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.