First Storey
Mountain Gate Topics
First Storey Topics
Gate Guardians
There is a pair of majestic Gate Guardians (Dvarapalas) standing watch on each side of the Mountain Gate of Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum. They look imposing, mighty and ferocious; their presence serves to protect the temple.
About Gate Guardians in Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum
The Tang Dynasty-styled temple guardians stand on either side of the temple mountain gate. Their fierce faces with glaring eyes, powerful muscular bodies, and threatening poses bearing weapons, serve to ward off evil spirits. They show their power and resolve in carrying out their duties in protecting the temple.
The two figures are slightly bigger than life-size, carved from natural granite and rimmed with gold paint. Both are depicted contrapposto: their torsos turn inwards towards the temple's entrance while their hips turn outwards. Their feet, closest to the entrance, point towards the doors, forming an L-shape with their other feet pointing straight ahead. Dressed with only a lower body skirt and heavenly ribbons, they stand majestically on a big slab of rock. The main ribbons circle around their heads, forming aureoles. Their hair is tied up in a top knot with the ends of the thinner ribbons flaring up on top of their foreheads, resembling horns. The thicker ribbons are tucked in by the sides of their waists and flow down, barely touching the rock upon which they stand.
Both figures show a wrathful appearance with bulging sinews and veins. Depicted with highly stylized abdominal muscles and sporting huge pectoral muscles, the two guardians hold implements with their left hands and display unique hand gestures with their right hands, ready to do battle at a moment's notice.
About Gate Guardians
Dvarapala (Sanskrit) is a door or gate guardian statue (appearing in either the human or demon form) in Hinduism and Buddhism. They were traditionally placed outside Hindu or Buddhist temples or buildings as their protective guardians. Dvarapala is usually portrayed as a fierce-looking creature. Depending on the size and finance of the temple, the guardians could be placed singly, in pairs or in larger groups.
Dvarapala (Chinese: Heng Ha Er Jiang 哼哈二将; Japanese: Kongōrikishi 金剛力士, Niō 仁王, Shukongoushin 執金剛神; Korean: Geumgangmun 金剛門) are two wrath-filled and muscular guardians of the Buddha, standing today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples in China, Japan and Korea in the form of frightening wrestler-like statues.
They are manifestations of the Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇ protector deity and are part of the Mahayana pantheon. According to the Japanese tradition, they travelled with the historical Buddha to protect him. Within the generally pacifist traditions of Buddhism, stories of Niō guardians like Kongōrikishi justified the use of physical force to protect cherished values and beliefs against evil.
In the Tang dynasty period, the images are derived from the yaksha beings of Indian mythology. The dvarapala is usually naked from waist up, displaying powerful muscles and energetic movement, with fiercely scowling wrathful expressions, celestial scarves, a chignon on the head and swirling sarongs, standing upright on rocks.
About Garbhavira
Garbhavira (Chinese: Mìjī jīngāng; Japanese: Misshaku Kongō, 密迹金剛, Agyō 阿形; Korean: Miljeok geumgang; Vietnamese: Mật tích kim cương) is the guardian of the Garbhadhatu Mandala (Mandala of the Womb World) and it expresses overt violence. He is placed on the right (east) of the mountain gate with his mouth open, making the shape necessary to form the "ah" sound, and bares his teeth, representing the vocalization of the first grapheme of Sanskrit Devanāgarī (अ) which is pronounced "a", which symbolizes the beginning of life.
He holds in his left hand a vajra mallet or "vajra-pāṇi" (a diamond club, thunderbolt stick, or sun symbol) which is a long staff with varja thunderbolt at each end. His right hand is lowered with fingers outspread. When painted, he is colored red. It is equivalent to Guhyapāda vajra in Sanskrit.
About Vajravira
Vajravira (Chinese: Nàluóyán jīngāng; Japanese: Naraen Kongō, 那羅延金剛, Ungyō 吽形; Korean: Narayeon geumgang, Vietnamese: Na la diên kim cương) is the guardian of the Vajradhatu Mandala (Mandala of the Diamond World) and symbolises latent power. He is at the left (west) side of the mountain gate with his mouth tightly closed, representing the vocalization of the last grapheme of Devanāgarī (ह [ɦ]) which is pronounced "ɦūṃ" (हूँ), which symbolizes the end of life.
He holds in his left hand a varja thunderbolt. His right hand is raised with fingers outspread. He is also depicted either bare-handed or wielding a sword and painted green.
These two characters together symbolise the birth and death of all things. (Men are supposedly born speaking the "a" sound with mouths open and die speaking an "ɦūṃ" and mouths closed.) The contraction of both is Aum (ॐ), which is Sanskrit for The Absolute.
Since the Sanskrit name Vajradhara was translated into Chinese in a number of different ways, including Shukongoushin, Niou and Kongou rikishi, scholars consider them the same deity; however, the names Kongou rikishi or Niou refer to public figures used as gate guardians from the Nara period to the present.
In Buddhism, the imagery of waging war and being a warrior is a metaphor for the battle one must engage in when one tries to destroy our kleshas or delusions (烦恼障) which is the principal cause of our samsaric existence.
Thus, these guardians serve as powerful symbols of the need to defend oneself against the undesirable psychological states, such as anger, attachment, ignorance, other non-virtuous minds and negative karma. By practising their opponents of patience, renunciation, love, compassion, concentration, wisdom and purification, a Buddhist practitioner sees himself or herself as being 'at war' with his or her negative mental states and would not rest until they are utterly and permanently defeated.
Indeed, the literal translation of Arhats is 'foe-destroyers': meaning that they have destroyed the inner demons of the delusions and therefore are completely free from all suffering. 'Arhat' is also a name often assigned to the Buddha.
In general, living beings experience many obstacles or enemies preventing their wishes being fulfilled. These obstacles are of two types: outer and inner. Our true enemy is our inner obstacles because while we can try to destroy our outer obstacles, for as long as we have negative karma and delusions within our mental continuum, they will never be fully eliminated.
The 8th century Indian Buddhist pandit Shantideva explained:
4.32
No other enemy indeed
Has lived so long as my defiled emotions—
O my enemy, afflictive passion,
Endless and beginningless companion!
Buddha taught that destroying our inner obstacles is the single most important task of a Buddhist practitioner: if we destroy our inner enemies of the delusions and negative karma, outer enemies will have no ability to harm us. This is illustrated most vividly by the 'The Buddha's Victory over Mara' story.
What our outer enemies can do at the most is to harm us in this life but our inner enemies, on the other hand, continue to harm us in this and all our future lives. Therefore, they are the true enemies of a pure Buddhist practitioner.
Thus, these door guardians are figurative reminders of the constant vigilance practitioners should have on their minds, constantly watching and preventing negative states of mind from arising. Reminding us of this, Shantideva continues:
4.38
No need to say that I will not lose heart,
Regardless of the hardships of the fray.
These natural foes today I'll strive to crush—
These enemies, the source of all my pain.
About Art
Longmen Caves: China
Dvarapalas as an architectural feature have their origin in tutelary deities, like Yaksha and warrior figures, such as Acala, of the local popular religion. Presently some dvarapalas are even figures of policemen or soldiers standing guard.
These statues were traditionally placed outside Hindu or Buddhist temples, as well as other buildings like royal palaces, to protect the holy places inside. A dvarapala is usually portrayed as an armed fearsome guardian looking like a demon, but at the gates of Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka, dvarapalas often display average human features. In other instances, a fierce-looking nāga snake figure may perform the same function.
The sculptures in Java and Bali, usually carved from andesite stone, portray the dvarapala as fearsome danavas or daitya (asura race) with a rather bulky physique in semi kneeling position and holding a club. The largest dvarapala stone statue in Java, a dvarapala of the Singhasari period, is 3.7 meters tall.
The traditional dvarapalas of Cambodia and Thailand, on the other hand, are leaner and portrayed in a standing position holding the club downward in the centre.
The ancient sculpture of dvarapala in Thailand is made of a high-fired stoneware clay covered with a pale, almost milky celadon glaze. Ceramic sculptures of this type were produced in Thailand, during the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods, between the 14th and 16th centuries, at several kiln complexes located in northern Thailand.
Depending on the size and finance of the temple, the guardians could be placed singly, in pairs or in larger groups. Smaller structures may have had only one dvarapala. Often there is a pair placed on either side of the threshold to the shrine. Some larger sites may have had four (lokapālas, guardians of the four cardinal directions), eight, or 12. In some cases only the fierce face or head of the guardian is represented, a figure very common in the kratons in Java.
Development of Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum Gate Guardians
Both Gate Guardians of Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum were placed in their respective positions on 13 March 2009.
Subsequently, gold leaf was added to enhance them.
These two Gate guardians are crafted from special granite by Mr Zhu Poixiong from Zhu Poixiong Arts & Craftsin Putian, Fujian China. They were carved by two deaf and mute brothers who specialise in carving of such stone Gate Guardians.
Bibliography:
- Frederic, Louis, Flammarion Iconographic Guides, Buddhism, Flammarion, 1995, pages 247 – 249, XXVII
- Chicarelli, Charles F., Buddhist Art, An Illustrated Introduction, Silkworm Books, 2004, pages 101 – 103
- McArthur, Meher, Reading Buddhist Art, An Illustrated Guide to Buddhist Signs & Symbols, Thames & Hudson, 2002, pages 68 – 69
- Chandra, Lokesh, Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography, International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 1999, Vol 4, pages 1063 – 1064
- Begun, Giles, Buddhist Art, An Historical and Cultural Journey, River Books, 2009, pages 289, 299
- Shantideva, The way of the Bodhisattva: a translation of the Bodhicharyavatara, Translated from Tibetan, Shambhala, 1997, p. 59.