The Mandala of the Two Realms (

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

: 両界曼荼羅;

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Liǎngjiè màntúluó''; Romanji: ''Ryōkai mandara''), also known as the Mandala of the Two Divisions (

: 両部曼荼羅;

: ''Liǎngbù màntúluó''; Romanji: ''Ryōbu mandara''), is a set of two

mandala A mandala ( sa, मण्डल, maṇḍala, circle, ) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for e ...

s depicting both the

Five Wisdom Buddhas 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

of the

Diamond Realm In Vajrayana Buddhism, the Diamond Realm ( Skt. वज्रधातु ''vajradhātu'', Traditional Chinese: 金剛界; Pinyin: ''Jīngāngjiè''; Romaji: ''Kongōkai'') is a metaphysical space inhabited by the Five Tathagatas. The Diamond Rea ...

as well as the

Five Wisdom Kings A Wisdom King (Sanskrit: विद्याराज; IAST: ''Vidyārāja'', ) is a type of wrathful deity in East Asian Buddhism. Whereas the Sanskrit name is translated literally as "wisdom / knowledge king(s)," the term '' vidyā'' in Vajra ...

of the

Womb Realm In Vajrayana Buddhism, the Womb Realm ( sa, garbhakoṣadhātu, Traditional Chinese: 胎蔵界; Pinyin: ''Tāizāngjiè''; Romanji: ''taizōkai'') is the metaphysical space inhabited by the Five Compassion Buddhas. The Womb Realm is based on the ...

. The number of deities arranged around the cores varies, but may range as high as 414. The Diamond Realm represents the unchanging cosmic principle of the Buddha, while the Womb Realm depicts the active, physical manifestation of Buddha in the natural world. The mandalas are thus considered a compact expression of the entirety of the

Dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

Mahayana ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...

Buddhism, and form the root of the

Vajrayana Vajrayāna ( sa, वज्रयान, "thunderbolt vehicle", "diamond vehicle", or "indestructible vehicle"), along with Mantrayāna, Guhyamantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, are names referring t ...

teachings. Chinese

Tangmi Chinese Esoteric Buddhism refers to traditions of Tantra and Esoteric Buddhism that have flourished among the Chinese people. The Tantric masters Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra, established the Esoteric Buddhist ''Zhenyan'' (, "true ...

and Japanese

Shingon file:Koyasan (Mount Koya) monks.jpg, Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks suc ...

and

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

temples, in particular, often prominently display the Mandalas of the Two Realms mounted at right angles to the image platform on the central altar. The two mandalas are believed to have evolved separately in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and were joined together for the first time in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, perhaps by

Kūkai Kūkai (; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835Kūkai was born in 774, the 5th year of the Hōki era; his exact date of birth was designated as the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, some 400 years later, by the Shingon sec ...

's teacher

Hui-kuo Huiguo () (746–805) was a Buddhist monk of Tang China who studied and taught Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, a Vajrayana tradition recently imported from India. Later Huiguo would become the teacher of Kūkai, founder of Shingon Buddhism, a prominen ...

External links

The Diamond and Womb World Mandalas
Dharmapala Thangka Centre

Dharmapala Thangka Centre {{Buddhism topics Buddhist iconography Mandalas

See also

External links