Four Heavenly Kings

The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhist gods or devas, each of whom is believed to watch over one cardinal direction of the world. The Hall of Four Heavenly Kings is a standard component of Chinese Buddhist temples.

Individual kings and attributes Each king corresponds to a cardinal direction and leads classes of lesser spirits or beings. Their names and roles vary slightly across Buddhist traditions.

Direction Name (Sanskrit) East Asian name Domain / function East Dhṛtarāṣṭra 持国天 (Chíguó Tiān), 持国天 (Jikokuten) Guardian of the East; leader of gandharvas and piśācas South Virūḍhaka 增長天 (Zēngzhǎng Tiān), 増長天 (Zōjōten) Guardian of the South; leads kumbhāṇḍas and pretas West Virūpākṣa 广目天 (Guǎngmù Tiān), 広目天 (Kōmokuten) Guardian of the West; leads nāgas and pūtanas North Vaiśravaṇa 多闻天 (Duōwén Tiān), 毘沙門天 (Bishamonten) Guardian of the North; leader of yakṣas and rākṣasas; associated with wealth and protection East South Agni 阿格尼天 (Agni Tiān), 阿格尼天 (Agniten) Guardian of the Southeast; leader of gandharvas and piśācas West South Yama 閻摩天 (Yama Tiān), 閻摩天 (Yamaten) Guardian of the Southwest; leader of nāgas and rākṣasas; leads kumbhāṇḍas and pretas West North Vayu 伐由風天 (Vayu Tiān), 伐由風天 (Vayuten) Guardian of the Northwest; leads nāgas and pūtanas; associated with wealth and protection East North Shiva in Buddhism 伊舍那天 (Īsāna Tiān), 伊舍那天 (Īsānaten) Guardian of the Northeast ; leader of Shiva in Buddhism

Names The Kings are collectively named as follows: LanguageWritten formRomanizationTranslationSanskritचतुर्महाराजChaturmahārājaChaturmahārājikāFour Great KingsलोकपालLokapālaGuardians of the WorldSinhalaFour Privileged/Bestowed GodsBurmese Loanword from catulokapālaloanword from catumahā + king natsChinese Heavenly Kings Four Heavenly Kings Four Great Heavenly Kings Good, rainy weather for growing cropsJapanese Four Heavenly Kings Four Great Heavenly KingsKorean /사천왕 Four heavenly kingsVietnamese 四天王Tứ Thiên Vương Four heavenly kings 四大天王Tứ Đại Thiên Vương Four great heavenly kingsTibetanརྒྱལ༌ཆེན༌བཞི༌rgyal chen bzhi Four great kingsMongolianДөрвөн их хаанDörwön ih haan (dörben yeke qaɣan) Four great kingsДөрвөн махранзDörwön Makhranz (Dörben maharanja)Four great kings, loan word from mahārāja (Sanskrit)/mahārājan (Pali)Thai จาตุมหาราชา Chatumaharacha Four Great Kings, loan word from catumahārāja (Pali) จตุโลกบาล Chatulokkaban Four Guardians of the World, loan word from catulokapāla (Pali)PaliCatu-MahārājaCatu-MahārājaThe Four Great Kings

Individually, they have different names and features.

Pali nameVessavaṇaVirūḷhakaDhataraṭṭhaVirūpakkhaDevanagariSanskrit romanizationवैश्रवण (कुबेर) (Kubera)विरूढकधृतराष्ट्रविरूपाक्षMeaningHe who hears everythingHe who causes to growHe who upholds the realmHe who sees allControlyakṣas/yakkhaskumbhāṇḍhas/kumbhaṇḍhasgandharvas/gandhabbasnāgas Description This is the chief of the four kings and protector of the north. He is the ruler of rain. His symbolic weapons are the umbrella or pagoda. Wearing heavy armor and carrying the umbrella in his right hand, he is often associated with the ancient Hindu god of wealth, Kubera. Associated with the color yellow or green. King of the south and one who causes good growth of roots. He is the ruler of the wind. His symbolic weapon is the sword which he carries in his right hand to protect the Dharma and the southern continent. Associated with the color blue. King of the east and god of music. His symbolic weapon is the pipa (stringed instrument). He is harmonious and compassionate and protects all beings. Uses his music to convert others to Buddhism. Associated with the color white. King of the west and one who sees all. His symbolic weapon is a snake or red cord that is representative of a dragon. As the eye in the sky, he sees people who do not believe in Buddhism and converts them. His ancient name means "he who has broad objectives". Associated with the color redImageColoryellow or greenbluewhiteredSymbolumbrellaswordpipaserpentmongoosestupastupapearlFollowersgandharvasnāgasDirectionnorthsoutheastwestTraditional/Simplified ChinesePinyin / / / / / / / / KanjiHepburn romanization () ()Hangulromanized Korean增長天王持國天王廣目天王Vietnamese alphabetChữ Hán多聞天王增長天王持國天王廣目天王Burmese Script ဝေဿဝဏ္ဏနတ်မင်း (Wethawun Nat Min)ကုဝေရနတ်မင်း (Kuwera Nat Min) ဝိရူဠကနတ်မင်း (Wirulakka Nat Min) ဓတရဋ္ဌနတ်မင်း (Datarattha Nat Min) ဝိရူပက္ခနတ်မင်း (Wirupakkha Nat Min)Tibetan alphabet and romanizationརྣམ་ཐོས་སྲས་ (Namthöse)ཕགས་སྐྱེས་པོ་ (Phakyepo)ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྲུང་ (Yülkhorsung)སྤྱན་མི་བཟང་ (Chenmizang)Mongolian Script and Mongolian Cyrillic and Mongolian Latin alphabet Намсрай Namsrai (Namsarai) Пагжийбуу Pagjiibuu (Pagjibu) Ёлхорсүрэн Yolkhorsüren (Yolhursürüng) Жамийсан/Жанмисан Jamiisan/Janmisan (Janmisan)Thai scriptromanization ท้าวเวสวัณ (Thao Wetsawan)ท้าวเวสสุวรรณ (Thao Wetsuwan)ท้าวกุเวร (Thao Kuwen) ท้าววิรุฬหก (Thao Wirunhok) ท้าวธตรฐ (Thao Thatarot) ท้าววิรูปักษ์ (Thao Wirupak)

Mythology All four Kings serve , the lord of the devas of . On the 8th, 14th and 15th days of each lunar month, the Kings either send out emissaries or go themselves to inspect the state of virtue and morality in the world of men. Then they report their findings to the assembly of the devas.

On the orders of Śakra, the Kings and their retinues stand guard to protect from another attack by the Asuras, which once threatened to destroy the realm of the devas. They also vowed to protect the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Buddha's followers from danger. In Chinese Buddhism, all four of the heavenly kings are regarded as four of the Twenty Devas (二十諸天 Èrshí Zhūtiān) or the Twenty-Four Devas (二十四諸天 Èrshísì zhūtiān), a group of Buddhist dharmapalas who manifest to protect the Dharma.

According to Vasubandhu, devas born in the Cāturmahārājika heaven are 1/4 of a krośa in height (about 750 feet tall). They have a five-hundred-year lifespan, of which each day is equivalent to 50 years in our world; thus their total lifespan amounts to about nine million years (other sources say 90,000 years).

The attributes borne by each King also link them to their followers; for instance, the nāgas, magical creatures who can change form between human and serpent, are led by , represented by a snake; the gandharvas are celestial musicians, led by , represented with a lute. The umbrella was a symbol of regal sovereignty in ancient India, and the sword is a symbol of martial prowess. 's mongoose, which ejects jewels from its mouth, is said to represent generosity in opposition to greed. Vaiśravaṇa (north)Virūpākṣa (west)Heavenly KingsDhṛtarāṣṭra (east)Virūḍhaka (south)

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Popular culture

In Japanese professional wrestling, the group of Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, and Akira Taue of All Japan Pro-Wrestling are commonly referred to as the Four Heavenly Kings of Pro Wrestling. In the Hong Kong entertainment industry, Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok are known as the Four Heavenly Kings. In the mid-to-late 1990s, Malice Mizer, La'cryma Christi, Fanatic Crisis and Shazna were known as the Four Heavenly Kings of the visual kei scene.

Four Heavenly Kings

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