Item: Pratisara (Buddhist Deity) - (Three Faces, Ten Hands)

Pratisara and the Pancha Raksha: the Five Protector Goddesses. Popular in the Kathmandu Valley and slightly less popular in the Tibetan cultural regions the Pancha Raksha protect from a host of worldly concerns such as harvest, child birth, sickness, pestilence, etc.

Although called the Five Protector Goddesses they function more as meditational deities with the desired results of protection from various calamities. Typically deities designated as protectors are worshiped as external from the practitioner and of a lower status than other deities such as those deemed 'wisdom deities.' The Pancha Raksha although called 'Raksha' - protectors - are treated as meditational deities.

Jeff Watt 12-2010

Thematic Sets
Subject: Protectors That Are Not Wrathful
Buddhist Deity: Pratisara Main Page
Buddhist Deity: Pancha Raksha Main Page