Za Rahula is the wrathful planetary protector of Tibetan Buddhism, the local development of the Indian eclipse-demon Rāhu who swallows sun and moon. He is portrayed with a dark serpent's tail in place of legs, four arms, nine heads crowned by a raven's head that caws prophecy, a gaping face in his belly, and a body covered with a thousand eyes. As chief of the gza' class of planetary demons he is feared as the bringer of strokes, epilepsy and sudden paralysis (gza' nad, 'planet-sickness'), and propitiated to avert them. In the Nyingma school he was bound by Padmasambhava as a guardian of the transmitted teachings and forms, with Ekajati and Dorje Legpa, the triad of special protectors of the Dzogchen tradition.