Four Heavenly Kings

Tamon-ten (Vaiśravaṇa) at Tōdai-ji, Japan

The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhist gods or devas, each of whom is believed to watch over one cardinal direction of the world. The Hall of Four Heavenly Kings is a standard component of Chinese Buddhist temples.

Names

The Kings are collectively named as follows:

Language	Written form	Romanization	Translation
Sanskrit	चतुर्महाराज	Chaturmahārāja Chaturmahārājikā	Four Great Kings
Sanskrit	लोकपाल	Lokapāla	Guardians of the World
Sinhala	සතරවරම් දෙවිවරු	Satharawaram Dewi	Four Privileged/Bestowed Gods
Burmese	စတုလောကပါလ စတုမဟာရာဇ်နတ်	IPA: [sətṵ lɔ́ka̰ pàla̰] IPA: [sətṵ məhà ɹɪʔ naʔ]	Loanword from catulokapāla loanword from catumahā + king nats
Chinese	天王	Tiānwáng	Heavenly Kings
	四天王	Sìtiānwáng	Four Heavenly Kings
	四大天王	Sìdà Tiānwáng	Four Great Heavenly Kings
	风调雨顺/風調雨順	Fēng Tiáo Yǔ Shùn	Good, rainy weather for growing crops
Japanese	四天王	Shi Tennō	Four Heavenly Kings
Japanese	四大天王	Shidai Tennō	Four Great Heavenly Kings
Korean	四天王/사천왕	Sa-cheonwang	Four heavenly kings
Vietnamese	四天王	Tứ Thiên Vương	Four heavenly kings
Vietnamese	四大天王	Tứ Đại Thiên Vương	Four great heavenly kings
Tagalog	ᜀᜉᜆ᜔ᜈᜑᜇᜒ ᜐᜎᜅᜒᜆ᜔	Apat na Hari sa Langit	Four heavenly kings
Tibetan	རྒྱལ༌ཆེན༌བཞི༌	rgyal chen bzhi	Four great kings
Mongolian	ᠳᠥᠷᠪᠡ ᠮᠠᠬᠠᠷᠠᠨᠵᠠ Тэнгэрийн дөрвөн хаан	Tengeriin dörwön xaan	Four kings of the sky
Thai	จาตุมหาราชา	Chatumaharacha	Four Great Kings, loan word from catumahārāja (Pali)
Thai	จตุโลกบาล	Chatulokkaban	Four Guardians of the World, loan word from catulokapāla (Pali)
Pali	Catu-Mahārāja	Catu-Mahārāja	The Four Great Kings

Individually, they have different names and features.

Pali name	Vessavana	Virūlhaka	Dhatarattha	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	yakkhas	kumbhandas	gandhabbas	nagas
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 Sri Lankan 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	Chief of the four kings and protector of the north	King of the south and one who causes good growth of roots	King of the east and god of music	King of the west and one who sees all
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
Traditional/Simplified Chinese Pinyin	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
Kanji Hepburn romanization	多聞天 (毘沙門天) Tamon-ten (Bishamon-ten)	増長天 Zōchō-ten	治国天 Jikoku-ten	広目天 Kōmoku-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
Filipino alphabet Baybayin	Bisrabana ᜊᜀᜒᜐᜀᜊᜀᜈᜀ	Birudhaka ᜊᜒᜓᜇᜑᜀᜃᜀ	Dhltalastla ᜇᜑᜎᜆᜑᜀᜎᜀᜐᜆᜎᜀ	Bilupaksa ᜊᜒᜎᜓᜉᜀᜃᜐᜀ
Burmese Script	ဝေဿဝဏ္ဏနတ်မင်း (Waithawun Nat Min) ကုဝေရနတ်မင်း (Kuwaira 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	ᠥᠯᠥᠨ ᠦᠨᠳᠡᠰᠲᠨᠢᠢ ᠦᠽᠡᠯ (Олон үндэстний үзэл) Olon ündestnii üzel	ᠲᠢᠶᠡᠨᠢ ᠥᠰᠥᠯᠲ (Тиений өсөлт) Tiyenii ösölt	ᠦᠨᠳᠡᠰᠲᠨᠢᠢ ᠽᠠᠰᠤᠠᠷ ᠦᠯᠢᠴᠬᠢᠯᠭᠡᠡ (үндэсний засвар үйлчилгээ) ündesnii zasvar üilchilgee	ᠰᠶᠡᠯᠶᠡᠰᠲᠢᠶᠡᠯ ᠰᠦᠷᠲᠠᠯᠴᠬᠢᠯᠭᠠᠠ (селестиел сурталчилгаа) syelyestiyel surtalchilgaa
Thai script romanization	ท้าวเวสวัณ (Thao Wetsawan) ท้าวเวสสุวรรณ (Thao Wetsuwan) ท้าวกุเวร (Thao Kuwen)	ท้าววิรุฬหก (Thao Wirunhok)	ท้าวธตรฐ (Thao Thatarot)	ท้าววิรูปักษ์ (Thao Wirupak)

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

Mythology

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]

Statues of the Four Heavenly Kings. From left to right: *Vaiśravaṇa*, *Virūḍhaka*, *Dhṛtarāṣṭra*, and *Virūpākṣa* in Beihai Park in Beijing, China.

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.

	Vaiśravaṇa (north)
Virūpākṣa (west)	Heavenly Kings	Dhṛtarāṣṭra (east)
	Virūḍhaka (south)

Gallery

Statues of the Four Heavenly Kings of Lingyin Temple, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Duōwén Tiānwáng (north)
Zēngzhǎng Tiānwáng (south)
Chíguó Tiānwáng (east)
Guăngmù Tiānwáng (west)

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

Popular culture

In the Hong Kong entertainment industry, Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok are known as the Four Heavenly Kings.
In first seasons of Sailor Moon, and Sailor Moon Crystal, the Four Heavenly Kings were the four loyal and faithfully devoted generals and bodyguards of Prince Endymion.
In MegaBeast Investigator Juspion, starting in episode 13, the main villain Mad Gallant employs a quartet of assassins called the Four Evil Heavenly Kings (悪の四天王, Aku no Shitennō).
The third movie of Detective Dee, by Tsui Hark, "Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings" (2018) (traditional Chinese: 狄仁傑之四大天王; simplified Chinese: 狄仁杰之四大天王).
In Pokémon, the group of Pokémon trainers known as the Elite Four in English are called the Four Heavenly Kings (四天王) in Japanese.
In Street Fighter, the leading members of Shadaloo known as the Grand Masters in English are known as the Four Heavenly Kings (四天王). They consist of M. Bison (Vega in Japanese), Vega (Balrog in Japanese), Balrog (M. Bison in Japanese), Sagat (formerly), and F.A.N.G.

References

^ A dictionary of Chinese Buddhist terms : with Sanskrit and English equivalents and a Sanskrit-Pali index. Lewis Hodous, William Edward Soothill. London: RoutledgeCurzon. 2004. ISBN 0-203-64186-8. OCLC 275253538.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

Chaudhuri, Saroj Kumar. Hindu Gods and Goddesses in Japan. New Delhi: Vedams eBooks (P) Ltd., 2003. ISBN 81-7936-009-1.
Nakamura, Hajime. Japan and Indian Asia: Their Cultural Relations in the Past and Present. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1961. Pp. 1–31.
Potter, Karl H., ed. The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, volume 9. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1970–. ISBN 81-208-1968-3, ISBN 81-208-0307-8 (set).
Thakur, Upendra. India and Japan: A Study in Interaction During 5th cent.–14th cent. A.D.. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1992. ISBN 81-7017-289-6. Pp. 27–41.