Dorje Legpa
Tibetan Buddhist · deity · mythic · deity
Damchen Dorje Legpa, 'the oath-bound Excellent Vajra' (Sanskrit Vajrasādhu), is among the best known of the indigenous Tibetan deities converted to Buddhism. Tradition holds that Padmasambhava subdued him in the eighth century and bound him under oath to protect the doctrine. He is depicted as a red, wrathful figure in the dress of a layman, wearing a round wide-brimmed hat and riding a brown billy-goat (or in other forms a snow lion), holding a vajra, a smith's hammer or a heart. He is the patron deity of Tibetan blacksmiths, a craft-association that links him with fire and the forge, and in the Nyingma school he serves, with Ekajati and Rahula, as one of the three special protectors of the Dzogchen (Great Perfection) teachings.
Domains
- oath bound protection
- smithcraft
Powers
- to guard the Dzogchen teachings and those who practise them
- to forge weapons and strike enemies with the smith's hammer
Epithets
- དམ་ཅན (Dam can, 'the Oath-Bound One')
Relations
- ally: Za Rahula