Gekhö
Bön · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Gekhö (Ge-khod), often invoked as Walchen Gekhö, 'Great dBal Gekhö', is the ancient tutelary god of the kingdom of Zhang-zhung in western Tibet, whose abode is the sacred mountain Tise (Kailash). In the Bön religion he became a major wrathful meditational deity presiding over a cycle of three hundred and sixty attendant gods, and his cult preserves some of the oldest strata of pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion documented by Samten Karmay and John Vincent Bellezza.
Domains
- sacred mountains
- tantric power
Powers
- to subdue demons and hostile spirits of the land
Epithets
- dBal chenSamten G. Karmay, The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet, 1998 (secondary)
Sources
- Gekhö (dBal-chen Ge-khod) is the fierce tutelary god of the ancient Zhang-zhung kingdom, abiding on Mount Tise (Kailash) at the head of a retinue of 360 deities, absorbed into Bön as a major yidam.: Samten G. Karmay, The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet, 1998 (secondary); John Vincent Bellezza, Zhang Zhung: Foundations of Civilization in Tibet, 2008 (secondary)