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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 .
The Four Heavenly Kings Hall at Guangfu Temple, in Shanghai.. The Hall of Four Heavenly Kings or Four Heavenly Kings Hall (Chinese: 天王殿; pinyin: Tiānwángdiàn), referred to as Hall of Heavenly Kings, is the first important hall inside a shanmen (mount gate) in Chinese Buddhist temples and is named due to the Four Heavenly Kings statues enshrined in the hall.
The word Cāturmahārājakāyika refers to the Four Heavenly Kings (Cāturmahārāja) who rule over this world along with the assemblage or multitude (kāyika) of beings that dwell there. The beings themselves are generally called cāturmahārājakāyikās or cāturmahārājakāyika devas .
The term Heavenly King is used even today in a limited scope within Chinese Buddhism, with a much more religious meaning than most of its uses as a title. An example of its use is within the Four Heavenly Kings. The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhist gods, each of whom represents one cardinal direction.
Examples include Śakra (known as "lord of the devas", the Buddhist Indra) who rules over the devas of the "Heaven of the Thirty Three" (Trayatrimsa), the four Lokapalas ("guardians of the world"), and goddesses like Lakshmi and Hariti. The four lokapalas are also known as the Four Heavenly Kings (Cāturmahārāja). Each rules over a specific ...
In Chinese temples, he is often enshrined within the Hall of the Heavenly Kings (天王殿) with the other three Heavenly Kings. He is also regarded as one 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. [3]
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In the Pāli Canon of Theravāda Buddhism, Vaiśravaṇa is called Vessavaṇa. Vessavaṇa is one of the Cāturmahārājika deva or "Four Great Heavenly Kings", each of whom rules over a specific direction. Vessavaṇa 's realm is the northern quadrant of the world, including the land of Uttarakuru.