# Rear Hall of the Hall of Heavenly Kings


## Introduction to Skanda, or Weituo Bodhisattva

Weituo Bodhisattva, also known as Weituo Deva or General Weituo, is a very famous vajra-bearing Dharma protector in Buddhism and is honored as one of the Twenty Devas and Twenty-Four Devas. In Chinese Buddhist monasteries, his statue is usually enshrined inside the Hall of Heavenly Kings, with his back to Maitreya Bodhisattva and his face toward the Mahavira Hall, protecting and guarding the monastery.

** Hindu prototype:** His prototype is Skanda, the son of Maheśvara in Brahmanism, or Hinduism. Also known as Kumāra Deva and the Six-Faced Youth, he was a young war god. In early Chinese translations such as the Golden Light Sutra, the Northern and Southern Dynasties translator Dharmakṣema rendered the name as “Jiantuo” or “Weituo.”

** Tang dynasty scribal error:** The Tang dynasty monk Huilin pointed out in Yiqie Jing Yinyi that the Sanskrit Skanda-deva should have been translated as “Saijiantuo.” Because the Chinese characters for “jian” and “wei” were similar in shape, a copyist accidentally wrote it as “Weituo.” Later, the character “wei” further evolved in use into the surname character “Wei.”

** Fusion with a Tang heavenly general:** The Tang work Daoxuan Lushi Gantong Lu records that under the Southern Heavenly King Virūḍhaka there was a general surnamed Wei, Wei Kun. He cultivated youthful pure conduct and protected the Buddhadharma with full devotion, gaining deep respect from the devas. Through popular transmission, the image of this “General Wei” became confused with the originally miswritten “Weituo,” meaning Skanda, and the two finally merged into the “Weituo Bodhisattva” known today.


## Vast Vows: The Last Buddha of the Future Bhadrakalpa
Although Weituo Bodhisattva currently manifests as a Dharma-protecting heavenly general wearing armor and holding a jeweled pestle, he is in fact a bodhisattva manifestation. He once made ten great vows before the Buddha, recorded in the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka Sutra, where he is called Chīlijie or Huojing Yaowang.
He vowed that when the thousand Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa were about to attain Buddhahood, he would be the first to offer food and drink; after their parinirvāṇa, he would collect their relics, build stupas for offerings, and protect the true Dharma.
He even vowed to transform and liberate beings during kalpas of warfare, famine, and plague, pacifying their suffering and afflictions.
Having received Śākyamuni Buddha’s prediction, Weituo Bodhisattva will become the last Buddha after all thousand Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa have entered nirvāṇa and the true Dharma has completely disappeared. His Buddha name will be Ruci Tathagata.


## The Ten Great Vows of Weituo Bodhisattva
According to Dharmakṣema’s translation of the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka Sutra, Weituo Bodhisattva, named Chīlijie in the sutra, once made ten great vows before the Buddha to protect the true Dharma:
1. Vow to cultivate the bodhisattva path: “At that time, I vow to cultivate the bodhisattva path. I will practice all ascetic practices, uphold precepts, practice giving, learn widely, be diligent, patient, and speak loving words, and fully complete merit, wisdom, and all assisting practices of the path.”
2. Vow to protect the true Dharma: “When the Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa are about to attain Buddhahood, may I be the first to offer food and drink. After their parinirvāṇa, I will collect their relics, build stupas for offerings, and protect the true Dharma. I will advise and transform those who break precepts, settling them in precept observance; those who have departed from right view and fallen into wrong views, I will advise and settle in right view; those with scattered minds, I will advise and settle in concentration; those lacking proper deportment, I will advise and settle in noble deportment. If any being wishes to practice wholesome roots, I will reveal wholesome roots to them.”
3. Vow to keep the Dharma lamp burning in the Dharma-ending age: “After those World-Honored Ones enter parinirvāṇa and when the true Dharma is about to vanish, I will at that time protect and uphold it so that it is not cut off. In the world, I will light the lamp of the true Dharma.”
4. Vow to liberate beings in kalpas of disaster: “During the kalpa of warfare, I will teach and transform all beings, guiding them to uphold the precept against killing up to right view. I will draw beings out from the ten evils and settle them in the ten wholesome paths. I will destroy all blindness and darkness and reveal the wholesome Dharma. I will eradicate the turbidity of kalpa, the turbidity of lifespan, the turbidity of beings, the turbidity of afflictions, and the turbidity of views, leaving none remaining. During the kalpa of famine, I will advise and transform all beings, settling them in the perfection of giving up to the perfection of wisdom. In the same way, when I advise beings to dwell in the six pāramitās, all their hunger, darkness, impurity, enemies, thieves, disputes, and afflictions will be made still. During the kalpa of plague, I will teach and transform all beings so that they dwell in the six harmonies and also settle in the four means of gathering beings. All plague and darkness among beings shall be extinguished. During half of the Bhadrakalpa, I will cut off and end such sufferings of beings.”
5. Vow to attain Buddhahood at the very end: “After one thousand and four Buddhas have appeared in half a kalpa, entered nirvāṇa, and the true Dharma has vanished, only then shall I attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening.”
6. Vow to be no different from the thousand Buddhas: “The lifespan and śrāvaka disciples attained by the one thousand and four Buddhas—may my lifespan and śrāvaka disciples likewise be the same, without difference. As the one thousand and four Buddhas subdue and train beings during half a kalpa, may I also subdue and train beings during half of the Bhadrakalpa.”
7. Vow to tame the remaining beings: “Those śrāvaka disciples of the Buddhas during half a kalpa who destroy precepts, fall into wrong views, lack reverence toward the Buddhas, give rise to anger and harmful thoughts, destroy the Dharma and the Saṅgha, slander the worthy and holy, damage the true Dharma, and commit grave evil offenses—World-Honored One, when I attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening, I shall pull them all out of the mud of birth and death and lead them into the fearless city of nirvāṇa.”
8. Vow that transformed Buddhas will teach beings: “After my parinirvāṇa, when the true Dharma of the Bhadrakalpa has disappeared at the same time, and when both my nirvāṇa and the true Dharma of the Bhadrakalpa have been completely extinguished, my teeth, bones, and relics shall all transform into Buddha images. They shall have the thirty-two marks, adorned with necklaces, and each mark shall have the eighty minor marks. In orderly adornment, they shall pervade boundless and immeasurable Buddha-less worlds in the ten directions. Each transformed Buddha shall teach the Dharma of the Three Vehicles and transform immeasurable and boundless beings so that they all become irreversible. If plague arises in those worlds and there is no Buddhadharma, those transformed Buddha images shall also go there and teach beings as described above.”
9. Vow to become a maṇi jewel: “If any worlds lack precious treasures, may I become a wish-fulfilling maṇi jewel, raining down various treasures and naturally producing stores of pure gold.”
10. Vow to become a great king of physicians: “If beings in any worlds are separated from wholesome roots and entangled in suffering, I will rain down udumbara fragrance, sandalwood, agarwood, and various fragrances, causing beings to cut off the disease of afflictions, the disease of wrong views, and the diseases of the four bodily elements. I will cause them to cultivate diligently in the three fields of blessing, so that at the end of life they may be born among devas and humans.”


## A Rumor Spread by Tour Guides
In some low-level tourist explanations and folk religious understandings, there is a **rumor:** “The posture of Weituo Bodhisattva’s demon-subduing vajra pestle secretly indicates the monastery’s rules for receiving guests: if the pestle rests on the ground, the monastery does not receive wandering monks; if it is held horizontally, monks may stay temporarily; if it is carried on the shoulder, the monastery is a ten-direction public monastery and welcomes monks from all directions to lodge there.”
**This claim is very wrong. Since ancient times, legitimate Buddhist monasteries of right faith have been ten-direction public monasteries. They receive offerings from the ten directions and also make offerings to the ten directions. A proper monastery of right faith would not refuse monks from all directions to stay. This can be used to distinguish whether a monastery is a true Dharma monastery. Of course, in modern society, if certain local governments have special regulations, then those regulations are followed.**