He lives in the city of Pretas, Kapila, 500 miles below the classical north Indian city of Rajgir and is accompanied by thirty-six attendants. Yama the Lord of Death, although portrayed in the Hell Realms, actually resides in the Realm of Ghosts and is the King of the Pretas.
#SAMSARA WHEEL OF LIFE WINDOWS#
The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising: Ignorance – a blind person with a walking stick (6:30 position) Dispositions – a potter & a potter's wheel Consciousness – a man picking fruit Name and form – two people in a boat Six senses – a house with six windows Contact – a couple embracing Feeling – an arrow in the eye Thirst – a man receiving drinking cup Grasping – a monkey with a fruit Becoming – a couple Birth – a woman giving birth Old age and death – corpse being carried In each realm the various beings are portrayed engaged in their respective activities along with the occasional buddha or bodhisattva.įourth: The outer circle is composed of 12 scenes which represent the Twelve Links of Dependant Arising starting at the bottom left with three blind figures (#1 ignorance) and then moving clockwise around the Wheel of Existence to meet again at the bottom right where two figures carry bundled corpses to the funeral pyre (#12 old age and death).
Yama in the hell realm holds a mirror to reflect those actions (and consequences) performed by each individual that comes before him. This form of Yama is a not the same entity as the Buddhist Tantric protector Yama Dharmaraja. This is Yama Dharmaraja, the Lord of the Dead, King of Judgment (the Law of Karma). At the bottom is the Hell Realm with a central blue figure, wrathful, holding a stick in the right hand and a mirror in the left. To the lower right is the Realm of ghosts (preta). To the left is the Human Realm and below that is the Animal Realm. To the right is the Asura Realm, a lower form of the gods that are always engaged in conflict. Some traditions explain that the god Indra depicted in this way is an emanation of Shakyamuni Buddha. At the top is the Realm of the Gods highlighted by a heavenly being, the god Shakra ( Indra), in a palace playing a stringed instrument.
Third: The widest of the circles is that of the six realms of existence god, asura (anti-gods), human, animal, ghost (preta) and hell. Second: The next circle, made of a white half and a black half, shows those individuals that have performed meritorious actions (good karma) moving upwards in the circle of existence and those having performed bad actions moving downward, naked, led by red and green attendants of the Lord of Death. They are often shown biting on each others tail. This wrathful figure is sometimes referred to as Yama, the Lord of Death, and at other times as the red female daemon of death, possibly Yami, the sister of Yama.įirst: The inner most of the 4 concentric circles shows a black pig (ignorance), green snake (anger/aversion) and a rooster (desire/attraction) circling on a blue background. Held in the tight grasp of Samsara personified (cyclic existence) seen as a fierce wrathful figure, red in colour, with one face and two hands, the circular disc is pressed up against the mouth ready to be swallowed at any moment - the immediacy of impermanence. The Wheel of Life (Tibetan: sid pai kor lo. Object/Concept Interpretation / Description