Korean Buddhism

Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelt Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE in the area modernly covered by Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is a...

Greco-Buddhist art

Buddhist art

Vajrapāṇi (from Sanskrit vajra, "thunderbolt" or "diamond" and pāṇi, lit. "in the hand") is one of the earliest bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism. He is the protector and guide of the Buddha, and rose to symbolize the Buddha's power. Vajrapani was...

A manifestation of Kongōrikishi that combines the Naraen and Misshaku Kongōs into one figure is the Shukongōshin at Tōdai-ji in Nara, Japan. Shukongōshin (執金剛神), literally vajra-wielding spirit, is Shūkongōshin or Shikkongōjin in Japanese, 집금강신 Jip geumgang sin in Korean, Zhí jīngāng shén in Mandarin Chinese, and Chấp kim cang thần in Vietnamese.^[4]

Skanda

Buddhist temples in Japan

Kongōrikishi or Niō 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 Vajrapāṇi protector deity and are part of the Mahayana pantheon. According to Japanese tradition, they travelled with the historical Buddha to protect him.

Kongōrikishi are usually a pair of figures that stand under a separate temple entrance gate usually called Niōmon (仁王門) in Japan and Geumgangmun (金剛門) in Korea. The right statue is called Naraen Kongō (那羅延金剛) and has his mouth open, representing the vocalization of the first grapheme of Sanskrit Devanāgarī (अ) which is pronounced "a." The left statue is called Misshaku Kongō (密迹金剛) and has his mouth closed, representing the vocalization of the last grapheme of Devanāgarī (म) which is pronounced "hūṃ." (हूँ) These two characters together symbolize the birth and death of all things. (Men are supposedly born speaking the "a" sound with mouths open and die speaking an "hūṃ" and mouths closed.) Similar to Alpha and Omega in Christianity, they signify "everything" or "all creation." The contraction of both is Aum (ॐ), which is Sanskrit for The Absolute.

Kongōrikishi are an interesting case of the possible transmission of the image of the Greek god Heracles to the East Asia along the Silk Road. Heracles was used in Greco-Buddhist art to represent Vajrapani, the protector of the Buddha (See also Image), and his representation was then used in China and Japan to depict the protector gods of Buddhist temples. This transmission is part of the wider Greco-Buddhist syncretic phenomenon, where Buddhism interacted with the Hellenistic culture of Central Asia from the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD^[5].

Nio were also introduced into Chinese Taoism as Heng Ha Er Jiang (哼哈二将). In Taoism novel Fengshen Yanyi, Zheng Lun and Chen Qi were finally appointed as the two deities.^[6]