Guardian of the North, and a God of Wealth

Vaishravana (also Vaisravana; Pali Vessavana) is one of the Four Heavenly Kings who guard the cardinal directions in Buddhist cosmology, the guardian of the north and the chief of the four. He is also, in his own right, a god of wealth, in which aspect he corresponds to Kubera and Jambhala in the Indian tradition and to Bishamon(ten) in Japan, where he is counted among the Seven Gods of Fortune and honoured besides as a protector and even a war-god. Typically shown armoured and martial, he holds a banner or parasol and often a jewel or a treasure-producing mongoose. As a guardian king he is a protector of the Dharma and of monastic communities, and images of the four kings stand watch at the gates of Buddhist temples across Asia.

Vaishravana's guardian-king role produced some of the most visible statuary in East Asian Buddhism: armoured, martial images of the Four Heavenly Kings, Vaishravana chief among them, flank temple gates from Nara's Todai-ji to temples across China and Korea, while at Dunhuang, on the Silk Road, he appears repeatedly in cave paintings as a mounted protector of the region's Buddhist communities; the oasis kingdom of Khotan went further still, its ruling house claiming direct descent from the god, a founding legend recorded by the seventh century pilgrim Xuanzang.