Four Heavenly Kings

Each king corresponds to a cardinal direction and leads classes of lesser spirits or beings. Their names and roles vary slightly across Buddhist traditions.

The Kings are collectively named as follows:

Individually, they have different names and features.

More information Pali name, Devanagari Sanskrit romanization ...

Pali name	Vessavaṇa	Virūḷhaka	Dhataraṭṭha	Virūpakkha
Devanagari Sanskrit romanization	वैश्रवण (कुबेर) Vaiśravaṇa (Kubera)	विरूढक Virūḍhaka	धृतराष्ट्र Dhṛtarāṣṭra	विरूपाक्ष Virūpākṣa
Meaning	He who hears everything	He who causes to grow	He who upholds the realm	He who sees all
Control	yakṣas/yakkhas	kumbhāṇḍhas/kumbhaṇḍhas	gandharvas/gandhabbas	nāgas
Description	This is the chief of the four kings and protector of the north. He is the ruler of rain. His symbolic weapons are the umbrella or pagoda. Wearing heavy armor and carrying the umbrella in his right hand, he is often associated with the ancient Hindu god of wealth, Kubera. Associated with the color yellow or green.	King of the south and one who causes good growth of roots. He is the ruler of the wind. His symbolic weapon is the sword which he carries in his right hand to protect the Dharma and the southern continent. Associated with the color blue.	King of the east and god of music. His symbolic weapon is the pipa (stringed instrument). He is harmonious and compassionate and protects all beings. Uses his music to convert others to Buddhism. Associated with the color white.	King of the west and one who sees all. His symbolic weapon is a snake or red cord that is representative of a dragon. As the eye in the sky, he sees people who do not believe in Buddhism and converts them. His ancient name means "he who has broad objectives". Associated with the color red
Image
Color	yellow or green	blue	white	red
Symbol	umbrella	sword	pipa	serpent
	mongoose			stupa
	stupa			pearl
Followers	yakṣas	kumbhāṇḍas	gandharvas	nāgas
Direction	north	south	east	west
Traditional/Simplified Chinese Pinyin	多聞天王 / 多闻天王 Duōwén Tiānwáng	增長天王 / 增长天王 Zēngzhǎng Tiānwáng	持國天王 / 持国天王 Chíguó Tiānwáng	廣目天王 / 广目天王 Guăngmù Tiānwáng
	毗沙門天 / 毗沙门天	留博叉天 / 留博叉天	多羅吒天 / 多罗吒天	毗琉璃天 / 毗琉璃天
Kanji Hepburn romanization	多聞天 (毘沙門天) Tamon-ten (Bishamon-ten)	増長天 Zōchō-ten	持国天 Jikoku-ten	広目天 Kōmoku-ten
			治国天 Jikoku-ten
Hangul romanized Korean	다문천왕 Damun-cheonwang	증장천왕 增長天王 Jeungjang-cheonwang	지국천왕 持國天王 Jiguk-cheonwang	광목천왕 廣目天王 Gwangmok-cheonwang
Vietnamese alphabet Chữ Hán	Đa Văn Thiên Vương 多聞天王	Tăng Trưởng Thiên Vương 增長天王	Trì Quốc Thiên Vương 持國天王	Quảng Mục Thiên Vương 廣目天王
Burmese Script	ဝေဿဝဏ္ဏနတ်မင်း (Wethawun Nat Min) ကုဝေရနတ်မင်း (Kuwera Nat Min)	ဝိရူဠကနတ်မင်း (Wirulakka Nat Min)	ဓတရဋ္ဌနတ်မင်း (Datarattha Nat Min)	ဝိရူပက္ခနတ်မင်း (Wirupakkha Nat Min)
Tibetan alphabet and romanization	རྣམ་ཐོས་སྲས་ (Namthöse)	ཕགས་སྐྱེས་པོ་ (Phakyepo)	ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྲུང་ (Yülkhorsung)	སྤྱན་མི་བཟང་ (Chenmizang)
Mongolian Script and Mongolian Cyrillic and Mongolian Latin alphabet	ᠨᠠᠮᠰᠠᠷᠠᠢ Намсрай Namsrai (Namsarai)	ᠫᠠᠭᠵᠢᠪᠣ Пагжийбуу Pagjiibuu (Pagjibu)	ᠶᠣᠯᠬᠣᠷᠰᠦᠷᠦᠩ Ёлхорсүрэн Yolkhorsüren (Yolhursürüng)	ᠵᠠᠨᠮᠢᠰᠠᠨ Жамийсан/Жанмисан Jamiisan/Janmisan (Janmisan)
Thai script romanization	ท้าวเวสวัณ (Thao Wetsawan) ท้าวเวสสุวรรณ (Thao Wetsuwan) ท้าวกุเวร (Thao Kuwen)	ท้าววิรุฬหก (Thao Wirunhok)	ท้าวธตรฐ (Thao Thatarot)	ท้าววิรูปักษ์ (Thao Wirupak)

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• Four Heavenly Kings statues at the royal crematorium of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand
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  Vaiśravaṇa of the north direction, king of yakṣas.
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  Virūḍhaka of the south direction, king of kumbhāṇḍas.
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  Dhṛtarāṣṭra of the east direction, king of gandharvas.
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  Virūpākṣa of the west direction, king of nāgas.

All four Kings serve Śakra, the lord of the devas of Trāyastriṃśa. On the 8th, 14th and 15th days of each lunar month, the Kings either send out emissaries or go themselves to inspect the state of virtue and morality in the world of men. Then they report their findings to the assembly of the Trāyastriṃśa devas.

On the orders of Śakra, the Kings and their retinues stand guard to protect Trāyastriṃśa from another attack by the Asuras, which once threatened to destroy the realm of the devas. They also vowed to protect the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Buddha's followers from danger. In Chinese Buddhism, all four of the heavenly kings are regarded as four of the Twenty Devas (二十諸天 Èrshí Zhūtiān) or the Twenty-Four Devas (二十四諸天 Èrshísì zhūtiān), a group of Buddhist dharmapalas who manifest to protect the Dharma.^[1]

According to Vasubandhu, devas born in the Cāturmahārājika heaven are 1/4 of a krośa in height (about 750 feet tall). They have a five-hundred-year lifespan, of which each day is equivalent to 50 years in our world; thus their total lifespan amounts to about nine million years (other sources say 90,000 years).

The attributes borne by each King also link them to their followers; for instance, the nāgas, magical creatures who can change form between human and serpent, are led by Virūpākṣa, represented by a snake; the gandharvas are celestial musicians, led by Dhṛtarāṣṭra, represented with a lute. The umbrella was a symbol of regal sovereignty in ancient India, and the sword is a symbol of martial prowess. Vaiśravaṇa's mongoose, which ejects jewels from its mouth, is said to represent generosity in opposition to greed.

• Statues of the Four Heavenly Kings of Lingyin Temple, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
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  Duowen Tianwang (north)
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  Zengzhang Tianwang (south)
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  Chiguo Tianwang (east)
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  Guangmu Tianwang (west)

• Statues of the Four Heavenly Kings of Jikō-ji, Takasago, Hyōgo, Japan.
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  Jikoku-ten (east)
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  Zōjō-ten (south)
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  Kōmoku-ten (west)
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  Tamon-ten (north)

• In Japanese professional wrestling, the group of Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, and Akira Taue of All Japan Pro-Wrestling are commonly referred to as the Four Heavenly Kings of Pro Wrestling.
• In the Hong Kong entertainment industry, Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok are known as the Four Heavenly Kings.
• In the mid-to-late 1990s, Malice Mizer, La'cryma Christi, Fanatic Crisis and Shazna were known as the Four Heavenly Kings of the visual kei scene.^[2][3]

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• Four Holy Beasts
• Four Living Creatures
• Four sons of Horus
• Four Stags (Norse mythology)
• Four Symbols
• Four temperaments
• Guardians of the directions
• Lokapala
• Royal stars
• Svetovid
• Tetramorph
• Watchtower