Dzambhala

one of the guardians of the four directions

Dzambhala is the guardian of the South. He embodies the power of wealth to benefit beings. He symbolises ‘richness’ in all its forms. He holds the mongoose which vomits jewels for the benefit of beings.

This statue is the more common seated form of Dzambhala, in which he has an opulent wrathful body type. There are also standing forms of Dzambhala in the Aro gTér, Düd’jom gTér and various other Vajrayana gTérma lineages. He wears the five-skull crown in display of his accomplishment of the wisdoms of the five herukas and holds a wish-fulfilling jewel in his right hand.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche said of direction guardians:
The meaning of ‘protectors of the directions’ is that when one relates accurately to one’s environment one’s experience of one’s world is ‘self-protected’. One is not attempting to exploit the world, and so one becomes wealthy merely through the clear intimacy of one’s relationship with the earth. The Southerly direction exemplifies the earth, and so this direction is the protected environment for practice of all the yogis and yoginis who are ‘rich by nature’

• Statue
• Thangka