SUMMARY | PHOTO GALLERY | NEXT | PREVIOUS | | LEXICON

RELIGION & MYTHOLOGY

 

 

 

  Yama with bull's head

 

China

A bronze figurine of Yama from Tibet, where in iconography the Vedic god of death is often depicted with the head of a bull. Here, he is standing on his mount, i.e. a buffalo or bull, which is copulating with a woman lying on the ground. To confront death, Yamantaka (fig.) manifested the form of death (i.e. Yama) itself, thus in art and iconography, both Yama and Yamantaka may be represented with bull’s heads, but Yama can be distinguished by the dhammachakka that he wears as an ornament on his breast, a symbol of the Buddhist teaching and his idiosyncratic mark.

VIDEO TRAVEL PICTURE MAP LOCATION DIRECTIONS