PRESIDENT NIXON'S THOUGHT ON LORD YAMANTAKA

One iconic wrathful Dharmapala (deity) often mistaken for a demon or devil is Lord Yamantaka (གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད). Buffalo headed with spiky horns and in unison with his Wisdom Consort, ornamented by lethal weapons and surrounded by raging fires is certainly a terrifying image to encounter. 

According to an unverified source, it is said that when President Nixon, the 37th President of the US was considering aid for Tibet, he encountered an image of Yamantaka with horns, and judged that the Tibetan people were primitive demon-worshipers. The horns might have been too much for that era, but the “sexual indulgence” with its Wisdom Consort played a role equally.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, there are two types of deities: Wisdom and Worldly deities. Wisdom deities are believed to be emanations of the enlightened beings whilst worldly deities are not. Lord Yamataka, for instance, is the emanation of Lord Manjusheri (Dzongkha, Phab Jampelyang), the God of Wisdom. The learned Lamas explain that the symbolism of wrathful Yamantaka should be understood as a compassionate Yidam, whose terrible power is turned against the obstacles to our practice, especially anger, hate, and death. 

From Sarma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, it is said that there are three forms of Yamantaka: Red Yamari, Black Yamari and Vajrabhairava (རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་འབྱེད)

According to a source, when the Lord Buddha was obstructed from getting enlightened by Garab Wangchuk, the King of all devils, Buddha took the form of Lord Yamantaka and subdued him.

As we visit the Palden Lhamoi Dukhang in Tashi Choedzong, to the far-end corner of the hall, we get to meet the statue of imposing wrathful deity, Yamantaka. Since the deity is a pure emanation of Phab Jampelyang, it is also recommended for the students and learners to recite regular Jampelyang prayer and receive its blessing. Generally, this is the mantra to pray to Lord Yamantaka:

ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་ཀྲོ་ཏེ་ཀ་ཡ་མཱནྟ་ཀ་ཧ་ན་མ་ཐ་བྷཉྫ་ཧཱུྃ་ཕཊ༔

om a trotéka yamantaka hana mata bhandza hung pé

oṃ āḥ krodhika yamāntaka hana matha bhañja hūṃ phaṭ

Photo: Yamantaka, image courtesy of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, George Roos,er, 69.164.9.jpg)