Below the realms of the brahma deities is the kama-loka (Pali and Sanskrit: “the realm of desire”). This realm includes a set of six gatis (“destinies”) that have played an important role as a setting for mythology in virtually all Buddhist traditions in Asia. The highest of these six destinies is that of the devatas (though both gods and goddesses are included among the devatas, the goddesses generally have a secondary role). Within this destiny there are many heavens, each inhabited by many deities. Mythologically, the most important are the Tushita Heaven, where the future buddha Maitreya awaits the time for his coming to earth; the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods, which is presided over by Inda (Sanskrit: Indra; sometimes called Sakka [Sanskrit: Shakra], a deity who plays a significant mythological role); and the Heaven of the Four Guardian Kings, protective deities who are found in many Buddhist myths.
The second of the gatis is the destiny occupied by human beings. The Agganna-sutta continues the story of creation by recounting the process through which the primal people devolved from their original idyllic earthly situation. Human vices and human conflicts emerge until a king called Mahasammata (“Great Elect”) is chosen to keep the peace and slow the pace of decline. Beyond this story of the beginnings of social life, the human realm is the locus for a myriad of widely diversified mythic stories about pious monks, nuns, kings, and other laypersons.
The third gati is the destiny of the asuras (“demons”), who in Indian mythology are the traditional enemies of the devas or devatas, though in the Buddhist mythology they generally play a limited role. (In fact, in some contexts the gati of the asuras is omitted from the system.) The fourth gati—the destiny of the animals—provides the setting for stories about many fabulous creatures, including nagas (mythical snakes), Garuda (a mythical bird), lions, and elephants.
The two remaining gatis, those of the pretas (“hungry ghosts”) and the hell beings, are mythically important in two respects. The descriptions provided of the punishments that are inflicted in these realms are very vivid indeed. In addition, there are widely distributed and well-known mythic stories of compassionate bodhisattvas and Buddhist saints who make journeys to these gatis to assuage the torment of those who suffer and to secure their release.
In different areas of Asia, new gods, goddesses, and demons were incorporated into the cosmology (for example, in Southeast Asia the great Hindu gods Vishnu and Shiva were often depicted as devas). Despite these new mythic contents, however, the classic cosmological structure was kept remarkably intact. Local gods and demons
Although the contemplative elite may deny the real existence of gods and demons together with the rest of phenomenal existence, the majority of Buddhists have preserved indigenous religious beliefs and practices. It has already been noted how Mara, the manifestation of spiritual evil, was presented in the earliest literature in terms of local demonological beliefs. It is also the case that the early stupas and entrances to cave temples were decorated with local male and female deities (usually referred to as yaksha" class="md-crosslink">yakshas and yakshinis) who were seen as converted defenders of the new faith. This proved to be a satisfying way of justifying the continuance of the cult of local deities, and it has been employed in varying degrees in every Buddhist land. Thus, there developed a pantheon of minor deities that continued to take in new members wherever Buddhism was established.
The Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions welcomed these local deities and have admitted some of their cults into the liturgies in honour of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Such favoured deities include Mahakala, the great black divinity; the mother goddess Hariti; Kuvera, the god of wealth; and especially Hayagriva, a fierce horse-faced god who is powerful in driving off unconverted demonic forces. The Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions have also identified local deities as manifestations of various buddhas and bodhisattvas. This process is particularly prominent in Japan, where the identification of buddhas and bodhisattvas with indigenous kami (Japanese: “god” or “spirit”) has included both the great gods (for example, in the identification of the buddha Mahavairochana with the great ancestral Sun goddess, Amaterasu) and the kami of local territories.
In other cases that are equally widespread, local gods and demons have been conquered, converted, and taken into the pantheon or relegated to the periphery (where they may still require propitiation). Perhaps the most interesting example is found in Tibet, where it is commonly believed that Buddhism became established in the 8th century only as the result of the wholesale subjugation of local deities—a subjugation that must, from time to time, be repeated through the performance of rituals marked by their dynamism and ferocity.
In Theravada, Buddhism has had to come to terms with local beliefs. In some cases well-organized pantheons have been built. In Sri Lanka, for example, various local, Hindu, and Buddhist deities hold places within a hierarchy headed by the Buddha himself. In Myanmar the traditional hierarchy of local nat" class="md-crosslink">nats is headed by Thagya Min. Identified with Indra, he becomes a divine protector of Buddhism, who reigns in the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods.
These neatly organized systems, even where they exist, are, however, only a small part of the story. Throughout the various Theravada countries, a wide variety of deities and spirits have been incorporated into the Buddhist world as the inhabitants of particular realms within the Buddhist cosmos or as the guardians of various images, stupas, and temples. At the same time, there are others who, like the demons of Tibet, remain only partially encompassed within the Buddhist domain. Female deities
In many Buddhist traditions female deities and spirits have been relegated to minor and secondary positions in the pantheon. Among the Theravadins, for example, it is rare for female deities to play a major role. An important exception is the goddess Pattini, who is a significant figure in the Theravada pantheon in Sri Lanka.
In the Mahayana tradition several female deities became major figures. Notably, Supreme Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) is often personified as the Mother of All Buddhas, who is manifest especially in Maha Maya, the virgin mother of Shakyamuni. Tara, the female saviour, is a much more popular figure who has often been seen as the female counterpart of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. In China and Japan, Avalokiteshvara himself gradually assumed a female form. As Guanyin (Japanese: Kannon), Avalokiteshvara became probably the most popular figure in the entire panoply of buddhas and bodhisattvas.
It was, however, in the Vajrayana traditions that female deities became ubiquitous at the highest levels of the pantheon. From the 7th century onward, a riot of female divinities found their way into certain circles of Buddhist yogis, where they were actually represented by women partners in a special kind of sexual yoga (physical and mental discipline). The process was gradually interpreted as an internal form of celibate yoga, for, in accordance with Vajrayana theory, enlightenment is achieved by the union of Wisdom and Method, now conceived of symbolically as female and male. Thus, it became possible to present supreme Buddhahood as the union of a male and female pair and then to represent every celestial buddha or quasi-buddha by a pair of male and female forms. The actual sexual ritual was certainly performed at one time in India and Nepal, seemingly to a very limited extent in Tibet, and perhaps not at all in China and Japan. Nonetheless, this form of Tantric symbolism, with its plethora of female buddhas and quasi-buddhas, has been taken for granted as part of the received tradition of virtually all Vajrayana Buddhists. Kings and yogis