Mountain Gods & Local Deities - Updated
Mountain Gods and Goddesses of Tibet and the Himalayan regions are spirits indigenous to a specific geographic region and considered worthy, for various reasons, of worship by the local populace. All of the gods and local deities represented here are generally considered Worldly Deities as oppsoed to Wisdom Deities - deities that are enlightened in a Buddhist or Bon sense of the word enlightenment. The gods can be either Bon, Buddhist or regional - as well as equally worshiped by all. The more famous of these various gods have been incorporated into religious traditions, often losing their local flavour as they move outside of their regions and are generically worshiped throughout Tibet and the Himalayas. Also note that some followers of the protector deity Dorje Shugden maintain that he is a Wisdom Protector and fully enlightened. Also, the Gelug Monastery of Dragyab in Kham, Eastern Tibet, holds that Dorje Setrab is also an enlightened Wisdom Protector.