藏傳佛教 — Tibetan Buddhism
Dharmapalas
護法神 · Chos Skyong
Fifteen wrathful protector deities — originally demons and malevolent spirits — subjugated and bound by tantric masters to serve as guardians of the Buddhist teachings.
Dharmapalas (Tib: Chos Skyong, “Dharma Protectors”) are the fierce guardians of Tibetan Buddhism — beings that were originally terrifying demons, war gods, or malevolent spirits, who were subjugated by enlightened masters (especially Padmasambhava) and bound by oath to protect the Dharma. Their terrifying forms express compassion powerful enough to destroy even the most entrenched obstacles to liberation.
མགོན་པོ་བེར་ནག་ཅན
Mahākāla Bernagchen
黑衣大黑天
Originally: An ancient Indian god of time, destruction, and death, pre-dating Buddhism; asso…
Subdued by: Vajradhara, the primordial Buddha
མགོན་པོ་ཕྱག་དྲུག་པ
Six-Armed Mahākāla
六臂大黑天
Originally: An emanation of Mahākaruṇā (Great Compassion), arising from the compassion-energ…
Subdued by: Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta in some traditions; Nāgārjuna in others
དཔལ་ལྡན་ལྷ་མོ
Palden Lhamo
吉祥天母
Originally: Originally a wrathful Hindu goddess, consort of Shiva in his terrifying Mahākāla…
Subdued by: In some accounts, she willingly converted to Buddhism; in others, she was bound by the primordial vow of Mahākāla himself
གཤིན་རྗེ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ
Yama Dharmarāja
閻魔法王
Originally: The Hindu god of death and king of the underworld, who judged the dead and assig…
Subdued by: Mañjuśrī in his Yamāntaka ('Conqueror of Death') form
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད
Yamāntaka (Vajrabhairava)
大威德金剛
Originally: Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of wisdom, manifested in this supreme wrathful form sp…
Subdued by: Not subdued—Yamāntaka IS the subjugator; he conquered Yama Dharmarāja
རྡོ་རྗེ་ལེགས་པ
Dorje Lekpa
金剛善
Originally: A violent tsen spirit (a class of powerful, fierce, blood-drinking spirits that …
Subdued by: Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)
གནས་ཆུང་ཆོས་སྐྱོང
Nechung Chökyong
奈瓊護法
Originally: Pehar Gyalpo, a powerful pechen demon (an extremely powerful class of demon king…
Subdued by: Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)
རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པ
Vajrakīlaya (Dorje Phurba)
金剛橛
Originally: A wrathful emanation of Vajrasattva (the primordial purity deity), arising as th…
Subdued by: Not applicable—Vajrakīlaya is himself the subjugating power; Padmasambhava received his transmission directly from Vajrasattva in vision
དཔེ་ཧར་རྒྱལ་པོ
Pehar Gyalpo
貝哈爾王
Originally: A supremely powerful demon king (pechen) of Central Asia, commanding a vast army…
Subdued by: Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)
གཟའ་རཱ་ཧུ་ལ
Rāhula (Eclipse Demon as Protector)
羅睺羅
Originally: The cosmic demon who causes solar and lunar eclipses by swallowing the sun and m…
Subdued by: Various accounts: subjugated by Indra in Vedic tradition; bound to Buddhism by Padmasambhava or Vajrapāṇi in Tibetan accounts
རིང་བཙུན་མ་ལྔ
The Five Tseringma Sisters
五長壽天母
Originally: Five powerful demonesses (srinmo) who inhabited the major peaks of the Himalayas…
Subdued by: Milarepa (c.1052–1135 CE), the great Kagyu yogi
བེག་ཚེ
Begtse (Jamsaran)
戰神白哲思
Originally: A powerful Mongolian war deity worshipped by the nomadic warriors of Mongolia as…
Subdued by: The Third Dalai Lama Sönam Gyatso (1543–1588)
གཡུ་སྒྲ་སྙིང་པོ
Kubera / Jambhala
多聞天王財神
Originally: The ancient Indian king of yaksha spirits and lord of wealth, who ruled the nort…
Subdued by: Not subdued—Kubera willingly converted to Buddhism after hearing the Dharma, vowing to support Buddhist practitioners materially
ཚིའུ་དམར་པོ
Tsiu Marpo
小紅神
Originally: A fire deity and guardian spirit of the Bon religion (Tibet's pre-Buddhist indig…
Subdued by: Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) in some accounts; in others, the deity willingly merged with Buddhism as Bon practitioners converted
དམ་ཅན་གར་བ་ནག་པོ
Damchen Garwa Nagpo
誓盟黑鐵匠
Originally: A powerful blacksmith spirit (garwa) of the Tibetan spirit world, associated wit…
Subdued by: Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)