Item: Begtse Chen (Buddhist Protector)

Begtse Chen, (English: the Great Coat of Mail. Sanskrit name: Prana Atma), the main protector for the Hayagriva cycle of practice.

Tibetan: Begtse Chen

With one face and two hands, in the appearance of a red 'tsen' daemon, dressed like a Tibetan warrior, he is covered in protective armour. In the right hand he holds a sword with a black scorpion shaped handle. The left hand clutches to the breast a fresh heart with a bow and arrow held in the bend of the elbow and a long lance and banner leaning against the shoulder. Aside from the armour, he wears all the usual wrathful vestments such as the crown of five skulls, a necklace of fifty freshly severed heads, and the like. Standing atop a sun disc with the right foot on the corpse of a horse and the left on the corpse of a man he is completely surrounded by the flames of pristine awareness.

Within the Sarma Schools the practice of Begtse Chen was popularized by Marpa Lotsawa and Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, the respective founders of Kagyu and Sakya.

Lineage from India: Vajradhara, Mahadeva, Nyi Od Drakpa, Dawa Nagpo, Shridhara Krashu, Nyen Lotsawa Dharma Drag, Kha'u Chokyi Gyaltsen, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158), etc.

Jeff Watt 5-98