Begtse

In Tibetan Buddhism Beg-tse (Beg tse; Baik-tse) or Jamsaran (Wylie: beg tse chen lcam sring "the Great Coat of Mail", a loanword from Mongolian begder "coat of mail") is a dharmapala and the lord of war, in origin a pre-Buddhist war god of the Mongols.[1]

Tsam mask in a performance in Ulan-Ude (2011)

Begtse has red skin and orange-red hair, two arms (as opposed to other Mahākālas, who have four or six), three blood-shot eyes and is wielding a sword in his right hand. He also holds a human heart in his right hand. In the stock of his right arm, he holds a bow and arrow and a halberd with bannet. He wears a chainmail shirt, which gave rise to his name, Jamsaran. He wears a Mongolian helmet with a crown of five skulls and four banners in the back. He is also accompianed by his consort, Rikpay Lhamo, and his main general, Laihansorgodog. They are surrounded by Jamsaran's satellites, the twenty-nine butchers.

Jamsaran is represented in Mongolian, and to a lesser extent Tibetan, Cham dance.[2]

See also

References
  1. Elisabetta Chiodo, The Mongolian Manuscripts on Birch Bark from Xarbuxyn Balgas in the Collection of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Volume 137 of Asiatische Forschungen, ISSN 0571-320X, 2000, p. 149, n. 11.
  2. Carole Pegg, Mongolian Music, Dance, & Oral Narrative, 2001, p. 158ff.
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