Tamonten

deity sky Buddhist single tradition · 2

Tamonten is one of the Four Heavenly Kings depicted on the shrine panels. He is derived from the Hindu pantheon and serves as a protective deity in Buddhist tradition.

↻ synthesized from 2 sources

When

First attested
700 CE
Attested period
700 – 2020
Historical notes
One of Four Heavenly Kings depicted on shrine panel in Tenpyō period style.

Relationships

syncretized with
Bishamon

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“The shrine that encases the sculpture is composed of seven panels depicting the Four Heavenly Kings...Tamonten”

#36404 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“Bishamon is also called Tamonten (多聞天 lit. "listening to many teachings") because he is seen as the guardian of the places where the Buddha preaches. He is believed to live halfway down Mount Sumeru.”

#36435 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001