KALARUPA

 Yama Dharmaraja (Tibetan: shin je cho gyal. English: Yama - King of the Law [of Cause and Effect]): the special protector deity associated exclusively with the practices of Vajrabhaiarava. Both Yama Dharmaraja and Vajrabhairava are wrathful emanations of the deity Manjushri. 

Dharmaraja, dark blue in colour, has one face and two hands. With the head of a buffalo and two sharp horns he glares fiercely with two bulbous eyes and a gaping mouth. His body is thick and fleshy with long nails and an engorged phallus. In the right hand he holds aloft a spine stick tipped with a gold vajra. In the left hand outstretched he holds a lasso. Embraced on the left side by the consort Chamundi, red in colour, to the Lord she offers up a skullcup with the left hand. Standing with the right leg bent and left extended mounted atop a buffalo, red corpse and multi-coloured lotus seat he is completely surrounded by the flames of pristine awareness.

Yama Dharmaraja is a wisdom deity protector of the father class of Anuttarayoga Tantra specific to the practices of the Vajrabhairava (Yamantaka) tantras. Bhairava is common to all the Sarma Schools. The Gelugpa tradition holds Yama Dharmaraja (also known as Kalarupa, 'Black Form') in a special regard as one of their three main Dharma protectors which also include Shadbhuja Mahakala and the worldly direction guardian Vaishravana. These were the three special protectors of Lord Tsongkapa the founder of the Gelugpa School.


 


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