Buddhist Deity: Bhadrakala (Three-legs)
Dali Kingdom Main PageSubjects, Topics & Types:
- Description (below)
--- Dali
--- Late Copies
- Bhadrakala Comparison
- Wrathful Figures (Dali)
- Dali Kingdom Main Page
- Masterworks
- Confusions
- Others...
Chronology of Bhadrakala Sculptural Works:
1. Original Dali Kingdom Works (937-1253)
2. Early Copies post-Dali up to Kangxi Period (Post Dali, 1254-1734):
3. Qianlong Copies (1735-1796):
- #33759
- #93613
- #94945
4. Post-Qianlong Copies (1797 to the present):
- #22618
- #94946
- #95021
Bhadrakala (previously catalogued as Trailokyavijaya) is typically a wrathful deity found in the early Buddhist Tantra literature as a retinue figure. Rarely in Indian, Himalayan and Tibetan Buddhism is Bhadrakala portrayed as a central deity. In the art of the Dali Kingdom, Yunan Province, China, this deity is depicted as fearsome in appearance, with nine heads, sixteen arms and three legs.
In the gallery below the images show variations in iconographic appearance as well as different qualities of craftsmanship in the creation of the works. It is not clear if any of the sculpture below are true Dali Kingdom artefacts. One sculpture has some Kangxi period characteristics, three appear to be Qianlong period and three appear to be post-Qianlong period.
Jeff Watt 1-2015 [updated 9-2015, 5-2017, 9-2025]
Toh 813, 1098. The Aspiration Prayer from “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm.” The Collection The Kangyur Tantra Tantra Collection Dedication-aspiration. The Collection The Kangyur Dhāraṇī Aspiration. སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ། · stong chen mo rab tu ’joms pa’i smon lam. 1 page.
