Kongōrikishi (金剛力士) or Niō (仁王) are two wrath-filled and muscular guardians of the Buddha, standing today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples all across Asia including China, Japan and Korea in the form of frightening wrestler-like statues.
They are manifestations of the Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi protector deity and the oldest and most powerful of the Mahayana pantheon.
According to Japanese tradition, they travelled with the historical
Buddha to protect him and there are references to this in the Theravada Scriptures as well including the Ambatta Sutta.
Within the generally pacifist tradition
of Buddhism, stories of Niō guardians like Kongōrikishi justified the
use of physical force to protect cherished values and beliefs against
evil.
Nio-Vajrapani is also seen as a manifestation of Mahasthamaprapta or the Bodhisattva of Power that flanks Amida in the Pure Land Tradition and as Vajrasattva, the Dharmapala of the Tibetan tradition.[1]
Kongōrikishi are usually a pair of figures that stand under a separate temple entrance gate usually called Niōmon
(仁王門) in Japan, Heng Ha Er Jiang (哼哈二将) in China and Geumgangmun (金剛門)
in Korea. The right statue is called Misshaku Kongō (密迹金剛) or Agyō and has his
mouth open, representing the vocalization of the first grapheme of Sanskrit Devanāgarī
(अ) which is pronounced "a". The left statue is called Naraen Kongō
(那羅延金剛) or Ungyō and has his mouth closed, representing the vocalization of the
last grapheme of Devanāgarī (ह [ɦ]) which is pronounced "ɦūṃ"
(हूँ). These two characters together symbolize the birth and death of
all things. (Men are supposedly born speaking the "a" sound with mouths
open and die speaking an "ɦūṃ" and mouths closed.) Similar to Alpha and Omega in Christianity, they signify "everything" or "all creation". The contraction of both is Aum (ॐ), which is Sanskrit for The Absolute.
A manifestation of Kongōrikishi that combines the Naraen (Ungyō) and Misshaku (Agyō) Kongōs into one figure is the Shukongōshin at Tōdai-ji in Nara, Japan.
The niōmon (仁王門 lit. Niō gate) is the Japanese name of a Buddhist temple gate guarded by two wooden warriors called Niō (lit. Two Kings).
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