Buddhist Dharma Protectors

by

Andrea Acri, Aleksandra Wenta

• LAST MODIFIED: 17 April 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0289

Introduction

The concept of dharmapāla, meaning “protector of the Buddhist religion” (from its enemies), came to the fore in Tibetan Buddhism, where it denoted wrathful deities characterized by a similar iconography. Those deities were usually depicted as fearsome-looking, multi-armed, multi-faced, and brandishing a sword or other weapons. The origins of dharmapālas (chos skyong) in Tibet are traced back to the conversion of the region to Buddhism by Padmasambhava. Tibetan Buddhism has numerous dharmapālas: one can say that every Tibetan monastery and every Tibetan Buddhist lineage has its own dharmapāla. However, the Tibetan Buddhist dharmapālas did not arise out of vacuum: historically speaking, the major source of inspiration for the later concept of dharmapālas seems to have been the classical and medieval Indian lokapālas and dikpālas, some of which, such as Indra, Yama, and Kubera/Vaiśravaṇa, were incorporated as dharmapālas into Tibetan Buddhism. Early Indian dharma protectors, although not being denoted by the technical term dharmapāla, were the semi-divine chthonic or aquatic beings such as nāgas, yakṣas, etc., constituting the pantheon of popular Indian religions that were later appropriated by Buddhists. Hindu deities like Viṣṇu also became part of Buddhism as protectors. Later dharmapālas described in tantric texts of the period from around the 7th to the 13th century, such as Trailokyavijaya, Acala, Yamāntaka, Vajrabhairava, etc., tended to be represented as wrathful (krodha) deities removing the obstacles for the protection of the dharma, each one presiding over a direction of the compass, for instance in connection with a particular mandala (diagram for ritual and meditation). This category of beings was very productive, as it spread over Buddhist Asia and often became localized along regional and linguistic lines, for instance in Tibet, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan.

General Overviews

While a comprehensive monograph on dharmapālas in Buddhism is lacking, accounts of several such figures are included in general books on Indian and Pan-Asian Buddhist iconography, such as Grünwedel 1901, Getty 1914, and B. Bhattacharyya 1958, as well as books focusing on tantric iconography, like D. C. Bhattacharyya 1974 and Linrothe 1999. Of particular importance is Linrothe 1999, discussing the wrathful protective deities (krodha-vighnāntaka) that are mainly found in medieval tantric Buddhist texts and iconography, and that perform the functions of the lower deities known as guardians of the doors (dvārapāla), guardians of the world (lokapāla), etc., found in Mahayana Buddhism as well as Hinduism and Jainism. Sadakata and Nakamura 1997 discusses the dharmapālas from the point of view of cosmology, as well as the iconography of a Japanese temple.

• Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh. The Indian Buddhist Iconography. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1958.

  Contains discussions of the ten wrathful deities of the directions as removers of obstacles for the protection of the dharma, also on the basis of tantric Buddhist mandalas, such as those of the 11th–12th-century Niṣpannayogāvalī and Sādhanamālā.

• Bhattacharyya, Dipak Chandra. Tantric Buddhist Iconographic Sources. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1974.

  Contains a study of Buddhist iconography based on extracts collected from unpublished Buddhist manuscripts, ranging from the 8th to the 18th century, preserved in the library of the Asiatic Society in Kolkata. A good companion to Bhattacharyya’s seminal study. Especially important is chapter 4, “Miscellaneous Deities,” describing Yamāri, Garuḍa, Gaṇeśa, Mahākāla, and the Dikpālas. Also gives accounts of various sādhanas with specific lists of deities presiding over directions, including female goddesses.

• Getty, Alice. The Gods of Northern Buddhism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914.

  Discusses Buddhist deities in India, Nepal, Tibet, China, and Japan, including protectors. Has a section on the dharmapālas, understood as “the eight terrible ones,” viz. Lha mo, Tshangs pa Dkar po (White Brahmā), Beg tse (The God of War and Protector of the Horses), Yama (Gshin rje), Kubera or Vaiśravaṇa (Rnam thos sras), Mahākāla (Mgon po), Hayagrīva (Rta mgrin), and Yamāntaka (Gshin rje gshed), but without historical contextualization. Among the dharmapālas, Beg tse was the latest addition, probably introduced to Tibet from Mongolia in the 16th century.

• Grünwedel, Albert. Buddhist Art in India. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1901.

  Provides a good overview on Brahmā, Śakra, Vajrapāṇi, nāgas, Garuḍa, and lokapālas, especially Kubera and Virūdhaka in Gandhāra sculptures.

• Linrothe, Robert. Ruthless Compassion: Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art. Boston: Shambhala, 1999.

  This illustrated book distinguishes between Dvārapālas, Dikpālas, the lower category of dharmapālas, kṣetrapālas, and lokapālas belonging to Mahayana Buddhism (1st century onward) as well as to the pan-Indian culture attested also in Hinduism and Jainism and the krodha-vighnāntaka deities that are mainly found in esoteric Buddhism (6th–11th centuries). The author argues that the group of krodha-vighnāntakas, who are protective deities capable of dispelling evil, perform also the functions of dvārapālas, kṣetrapālas, and lokapālas.

• Sadakata, Akira, and Hajime Nakamura. Buddhist Cosmology, Philosophy and Origins. Tokyo: Kosei, 1997.

  Discusses the incorporation of various Indian pantheons into Buddhist cosmology. It also examines the protectors of Buddhism as eight demigods: devas, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas and kinnaras, and mahoragas, and elaborates on the depictions of those seen in the carvings at the Kofuku-ji temple in Nara, Japan.