Himalayan Art Resources

Buddhist Worldly Protector: Garwa Nagpo Iconography

Garwa Nagpo Page

Subjects, Topics & Types:
- Description (below)
- With a Hat
- Without a Hat
- Retinue of Dorje Legpa
- Retinue of Bernagchen Mahakala
- Confusions: Dorje Legpa Riding a Goat, Dorje Shugden
- Others...

Video: Garwa Nagpo, the Blacksmith

General Description: Wrathful with one face and two hands, he is dark blue in colour, with three eyes, bared fangs and bright orange or brown hair flaming upward. The right hand holds aloft a vajra hammer and the left a blacksmith's bellows made of striped tiger skin. Adorned with a crown of five dry skulls and earrings he is lavishly attired in variously coloured full-length garments and felt boots. Riding atop a brown goat with two horns he is surrounded most often by grey smoke and wisps of orange and yellow flame.

Principal Characteristics:
- Blue in Colour
- Hammer
- Bellows (tiger skin)
- Bamboo Hat (or wrathful hair)
- Layered Colourful Clothing
- Goat Mount

Damchen Garwa Nagpo can be accompanied by an assortment of retinue figures as described in the various ritual texts. Garwa Nagpo is also sometimes depicted with the accompanying figures of a black bear, fox, wild blue mule and a grey wolf. The animals function as servant-like messengers for the protector.

Database Search: All Images, Painting, Sculpture

Jeff Watt [updated 6-2021]

(The images below are only a selection of examples from the links above).