Shinje

Tibetan form of Yama: lord of death, 'king of the religious law' (Dharmarāja), and a principal dharmapāla of the Gelug school depicted buffalo-headed and dark blue. His wrathful conqueror is Yamāntaka (Mañjuśrī), 'destroyer of Yama'.

Domains

• lordship of death
• king of the religious law

Powers

• Judge the dead by the law of karma
• Guard spiritual practice as enlightened wrath

Epithets

• གཤིན་རྗེ་ tibetan · gShin rje · cultLord of the Dead; the Tibetan YamaTibetan Buddhist tradition; the Bardo Thödol (Tibetan Book of the Dead) (secondary)
• ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ tibetan · Chos kyi rgyal po · cultKing of the Dharma/Law (Dharmarāja); judge of the deadGelug dharmapāla tradition; Yama Dharmarāja as protector (secondary)
• धर्मराज sanskrit · Dharmarāja · cultKing of the Law; his Sanskrit title as lord of deathIndo-Tibetan Yamāntaka/Vajrabhairava tantric cycle (secondary)
• གཤིན་རྗེ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ Tibetan · Shinje Chogyal · cultDharma-king Lord of the DeadR. de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet (1956) (secondary)

Relations

• equated with: YamagShin-rje is the Tibetan Yama: lord of the dead and judge translated wholesale, then re-cast as the tamed dharmapāla Kālarūpa/Dharmarāja, subdued by Mañjuśrī-Yamāntaka — a protector role beyond the Indian canon's Yama.René de Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet (1956), ch. on gShin-rje; D. Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (1987) (secondary)

Sources

• existence: Pali Canon, Devadūta-sutta (MN 130) (Yama) (primary); Tibetan Yama Dharmarāja / Gelug protector tradition (secondary)