Four Heavenly Kings

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 are celestial deities or guardian gods in Buddhist cosmology who preside over the four cardinal directions and protect the Dharma.

Cosmological role

In Buddhist cosmology, the Four Heavenly Kings dwell on the lower slopes of Mount Sumeru in the heaven known as Cāturmahārājakāyika. They act as subordinate deities of Śakra in the Trāyastriṃśa realm and are tasked with guarding the four directions and protecting the world from malevolent forces.
In the Sutra of Golden Light, the Four Heavenly Kings vow to protect those who honor and recite the sutra, thereby safeguarding righteous rulers and the Buddhist sangha.
They also appear in protective discourses such as the Āṭānāṭīya Sutta, where one of the kings gives protective verses against malicious spirits.

Individual kings and attributes

Each king corresponds to a cardinal direction and leads classes of lesser spirits or beings. Their names and roles vary slightly across Buddhist traditions.

Direction	Name	East Asian name	Domain / function
East	Dhṛtarāṣṭra	持国天, 持国天	Guardian of the East; leader of gandharvas and piśācas
South	Virūḍhaka	增長天, 増長天	Guardian of the South; leads kumbhāṇḍas and pretas
West	Virūpākṣa	广目天, 広目天	Guardian of the West; leads nāgas and pūtanas
North	Vaiśravaṇa	多闻天, 毘沙門天	Guardian of the North; leader of yakṣas and rākṣasas; associated with wealth and protection

In East Asian Buddhist art, these kings are depicted in armor, wielding symbolic objects, and standing in fierce warrior poses.

Literary and ritual significance

Golden Light Sutra and state protection

One of the most influential sutras linking the Four Heavenly Kings to political and religious legitimacy is the Golden Light Sutra. It was widely employed in East Asia as a state-protection text: rulers would commission recitations to invoke the protector deities, including the Four Heavenly Kings, to defend the realm from disasters, invasions, or internal disorder.
In particular, Emperor Shōmu of Nara Japan ordered the construction of provincial temples, each enshrining a copy of the text, naming them “Temples for the Protection of the State by the Golden Light of the Four Heavenly Kings.”

Protective sūtras and recitations

The Scripture of the Four Heavenly Kings is another text in the East Asian canon describing the kings' protective functions. Scholars have observed that parts of this scripture contain strongly secular or non-Buddhist elements.

Iconographic and regional variations

In Chinese Buddhism, the Four Kings are often enshrined in the Heavenly Kings Hall at temple entrances.
In Japanese Buddhism, known as Shitennō, they guard temple gates or surround the main deity in martial stances.
In Korean Buddhism, the Four Heavenly Kings at Hwaomsa have been studied, with attribution to the 17th-century sculptor monk In’gyun.

The standardized iconography crystallized in China under Tibetan Tantric influence.

Symbolic interpretation

The Four Heavenly Kings are commonly interpreted as symbolizing:

Guardianship of the Dharma – protecting the world from negative influences.
Cosmic order – maintaining harmony in the universe through control of directions.
Support of rulers – legitimizing righteous kingship through divine protection.
Names

The Kings are collectively named as follows:

Language	Written form	Romanization	Translation
Sanskrit	चतुर्महाराज	Chaturmahārāja Chaturmahārājikā	Four Great Kings
Sanskrit	लोकपाल	Lokapāla	Guardians of the World
Sinhala	සතරවරම් දෙවිවරු		Four Privileged/Bestowed Gods
Burmese	စတုလောကပါလ စတုမဟာရာဇ်နတ်		Loanword from catulokapāla loanword from catumahā + king nats
Chinese	天王		Heavenly Kings
Chinese	四天王		Four Heavenly Kings
Chinese	四大天王		Four Great Heavenly Kings
Chinese	风调雨顺/風調雨順		Good, rainy weather for growing crops
Japanese	四天王		Four Heavenly Kings
Japanese	四大天王		Four Great Heavenly Kings
Korean	四天王/사천왕		Four heavenly kings
Vietnamese	四天王	Tứ Thiên Vương	Four heavenly kings
Vietnamese	四大天王	Tứ Đại Thiên Vương	Four great heavenly kings
Tibetan	རྒྱལ༌ཆེན༌བཞི༌	rgyal chen bzhi	Four great kings
Mongolian	Язгуурун дөрвөн их хаан	Yazguurun dörwön ix xaan	Four great kings of the root
Mongolian	ᠳᠥᠷᠪᠡᠨ ᠮᠠᠬᠠᠷᠠᠨᠽᠠ Дөрвөн махранз	Dörwön maxranz	Four great kings, loan word from mahārāja /mahārājan
Mongolian	ᠣᠷᠴᠢᠯᠠᠩ ‍ᠢ ᠬᠠᠮᠠᠭᠠᠯᠠᠬᠤ ᠳᠥᠷᠪᠡᠨ ᠮᠠᠬᠠᠷᠠᠨᠽᠠ Орчлоныг хамгаалах дөрвөн махранз	Orchlonig xamgaalax dörwön maxranz	World-protecting four great kings
Thai	จาตุมหาราชา	Chatumaharacha	Four Great Kings, loan word from catumahārāja
Thai	จตุโลกบาล	Chatulokkaban	Four Guardians of the World, loan word from catulokapāla
Pali	Catu-Mahārāja	Catu-Mahārāja	The Four Great Kings

Individually, they have different names and features.

Pali name	Vessavaṇa	Virūḷhaka	Dhataraṭṭha	Virūpakkha
Devanagari Sanskrit romanization	वैश्रवण	विरूढक	धृतराष्ट्र	विरूपाक्ष
Meaning	He who hears everything	He who causes to grow	He who upholds the realm	He who sees all
Control	yakṣas/yakkhas	kumbhāṇḍhas/kumbhaṇḍhas	gandharvas/gandhabbas	nāgas
Description	This is the chief of the four kings and protector of the north. He is the ruler of rain. His symbolic weapons are the umbrella or pagoda. Wearing heavy armor and carrying the umbrella in his right hand, he is often associated with the ancient Hindu god of wealth, Kubera. Associated with the color yellow or green.	King of the south and one who causes good growth of roots. He is the ruler of the wind. His symbolic weapon is the sword which he carries in his right hand to protect the Dharma and the southern continent. Associated with the color blue.	King of the east and god of music. His symbolic weapon is the pipa. He is harmonious and compassionate and protects all beings. Uses his music to convert others to Buddhism. Associated with the color white.	King of the west and one who sees all. His symbolic weapon is a snake or red cord that is representative of a dragon. As the eye in the sky, he sees people who do not believe in Buddhism and converts them. His ancient name means "he who has broad objectives". Associated with the color red
Image
Color	yellow or green	blue	white	red
Symbol	umbrella	sword	pipa	serpent
Symbol	mongoose	sword	pipa	stupa
Symbol	stupa	sword	pipa	pearl
Followers	Yaksha\|	Kumbhanda\|	gandharvas	nāgas
Direction	north	south	east	west
Traditional/Simplified Chinese Pinyin	多聞天王 / 多闻天王 Duōwén Tiānwáng	增長天王 / 增长天王 Zēngzhǎng Tiānwáng	持國天王 / 持国天王 Chíguó Tiānwáng	廣目天王 / 广目天王 Guăngmù Tiānwáng
Traditional/Simplified Chinese Pinyin	毗沙門天 / 毗沙门天	留博叉天 / 留博叉天	多羅吒天 / 多罗吒天	毗琉璃天 / 毗琉璃天
Kanji Hepburn romanization	多聞天 Tamon-ten	増長天 Zōchō-ten	持国天 Jikoku-ten	広目天 Kōmoku-ten
Kanji Hepburn romanization	多聞天 Tamon-ten	増長天 Zōchō-ten	治国天 Jikoku-ten	広目天 Kōmoku-ten
Hangul romanized Korean	다문천왕 Damun-cheonwang	증장천왕 增長天王 Jeungjang-cheonwang	지국천왕 持國天王 Jiguk-cheonwang	광목천왕 廣目天王 Gwangmok-cheonwang
Vietnamese alphabet Chữ Hán	Đa Văn Thiên Vương 多聞天王	Tăng Trưởng Thiên Vương 增長天王	Trì Quốc Thiên Vương 持國天王	Quảng Mục Thiên Vương 廣目天王
Burmese Script	ဝေဿဝဏ္ဏနတ်မင်း ကုဝေရနတ်မင်း	ဝိရူဠကနတ်မင်း	ဓတရဋ္ဌနတ်မင်း	ဝိရူပက္ခနတ်မင်း
Tibetan alphabet and romanization	རྣམ་ཐོས་སྲས་	ཕགས་སྐྱེས་པོ་	ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྲུང་	སྤྱན་མི་བཟང་
Mongolian Script and Mongolian Cyrillic and Mongolian Latin alphabet	ᠲᠡᠢᠨ ᠰᠣᠨᠣᠰᠤᠭᠴᠢ Tiin sonsogch/tein sonosuɣči	ᠦᠯᠡᠮᠵᠢ ᠪᠡᠶᠡᠲᠦ Ülemzh biyet/Ülemji beyetü	ᠣᠷᠣᠨ ᠣᠷᠴᠢᠨ ‍ᠢ ᠰᠠᠬᠢᠭᠴᠢ Oron orchinig saxigch/Oron orčin-i sakiɣči	ᠡᠭᠡᠨᠡᠭᠲᠡ ᠦᠵᠡᠭᠴᠢ Egnegt üzegch/Egenegte üjegči
Mongolian Script and Mongolian Cyrillic and Mongolian Latin alphabet	Namsrai	Pagzhiibuu	Yolxorsüren	Zhamiisan
Mongolian Script and Mongolian Cyrillic and Mongolian Latin alphabet	Olon ündestnii üzel	Tiyenii ösölt	ündesnii zasvar üilchilgee	syelyestiyel surtalchilgaa
Thai script romanization	ท้าวเวสวัณ ท้าวเวสสุวรรณ ท้าวกุเวร	ท้าววิรุฬหก	ท้าวธตรฐ	ท้าววิรูปักษ์