The divine figures of Buddhism

This group gathers the celestial and enlightened figures venerated across the Buddhist world. Classical Buddhism does not posit a creator god, and the historical Buddha is remembered as an awakened teacher rather than a deity; yet the tradition developed a vast pantheon of buddhas, bodhisattvas, protectors and inherited gods, especially in its Mahayana and Vajrayana forms.

The browser will find cosmic buddhas such as Amitabha and Vairocana, the compassion-bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin, Chenrezig) and the wisdom-bodhisattva Manjushri, the future buddha Maitreya, wrathful protectors, and devas absorbed from Hindu and local traditions. Provenance and school (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana) shape which figures appear and how they are understood.