Material: Cast iron. Painted. Base can hold sacred objects. (Includes one painted amulet.)

Size: Approximately 48 cm (including base) and one shield.

Narrative:

Legend has it that long ago, a distinguished monk from Qie Dratsang went on a pilgrimage to Mount Wutai. Meanwhile, a beautiful concubine in the imperial palace in Beijing was poisoned to death during a court struggle. Her spirit lingered in the palace, seeking revenge and causing widespread panic. Upon learning of the monk's arrival, Emperor Qianlong personally went to greet him. Upon arriving, the monk discovered the concubine's spirit circling and weeping. Entering a state of trance, the monk conversed with the woman and learned of her past life. He then informed the emperor of the events, who severely punished the culprit and asked the monk to chant sutras for her soul. As the monk prepared to depart, he discovered the concubine's spirit following him on his way back, expressing his desire to seek refuge. Despite the arduous journey through the vast snowy land, his original aspiration remained unwavering. Moved by her compassion, the master agreed to take her back to Lhasa. Upon seeing the golden dome of Sera Monastery, the master suddenly explained that women could not enter the monastery but could only stay. He offered to build a temple for her and receive offerings from the local people. The woman nodded in gratitude, and so she stayed at Zhaji. Upon returning to Sera Monastery, the master recounted his journey to the elder Che Dratsang, who praised him and agreed to build a small temple for the Han Chinese woman, create a statue of her, and perform a grand "demon-subduing" ceremony, naming her "Zhaji Lhamo."

 

In Tibet, every Wednesday is auspicious day for pilgrimage to Zhaji Lhamo. On this day, people bring white wine and khatas to offer to the Celestial Mother, praying for prosperous business and abundant wealth.

 

Image

Zhaji Lhamo is a terrifying figure with a black face, a protruding tongue, a skull crown, and chicken feet, resembling the Hindu goddess Kali. She is dressed entirely in black, with bulging eyes, bared fangs, and a long, blood-red tongue. She wears a golden skull crown, and her lower body is shaped like chicken claws, with hands and feet attached to an iron chain.

 

We all know that the goddess Zaki was originally very beautiful, but why is her image in temples so terrifying? (See the image above) The story begins at the beginning. When she first arrived in Tibet, her beauty aroused the jealousy of the local female ghost goddesses. They used the same method to poison Zaki Ram. After being poisoned, Zaki Ram was in great pain, but due to her profound skills, she forced the poison to the tip of her tongue, where it protruded long enough to expel the poison. Although she escaped this ordeal, Zaki Ram's tongue could never be retracted. When the female demon goddesses realized this method wasn't working, they devised another plan. Even more cruel, they chopped off Zakiram's feet. This persecution was even more excruciating. Fortunately, Zakiram possessed immense magical powers. Despite losing her feet, she managed to transform them into a pair of chicken feet, transforming into the "Chicken Claw Goddess" with human form and chicken claws. Her appearance was completely transformed: her face was pitch black, her eyes glared, her mouth was bloody, and her tongue was extended. Her appearance was terrifying. Thus, Zaki was able to ascend from the demon realm to the divine realm. Such a powerful woman! It's said that she has 1,000 incarnations and 100 titles. Every day, she patrols the world three times, devouring demons and safeguarding peace.

 

Zashi Lhamo (Tibetan: གྲ་བཞི་ལྷ་མོ; English: Zashi Lhamo), a female deity of wealth in Tibetan Buddhism, is the principal guardian deity of Zaji Monastery in Lhasa. She is also worshipped at Huguo Falun Temple in Shenyang, Fuyu Zhengjie Temple in Daqing, and Ruiying Temple in Fuxin. There are two main theories about the origins of her belief: one holds that Zashi Lhamo is a native Tibetan guardian deity; the other holds that she is an incarnation of Rajnima Xunnu and shares teachings with the 18th-century Gelugpa monk Lelung Xibei Dorje.

 

Source of Belief

 

The local tradition states that the prayer, still used at Zhaji Monastery, is "The Order of Offerings to the Desire Realm Goddess Sogye Buchi, Rewarding the Desire Realm Goddess and Gesar Dizhi, and the Sharp Blade Cutting Through the Swift Thunderbolt" (Tibetan: མ་མོ་འདོད་ཁམས་སྲོག་གི་སྤུ་གྲིའི་བསྐང་བ ་དང་གེ་སར་ས་བདག་བཅས་ཀྱི་མཆོད་བསྟོད་འཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱི་ This is reflected in the Tibetan text "རིམ་པ་སྤུ་གྲིའི་རེག་གཅོད་རྣོ་མྱུར་ཐོག་མདའ།." The text refers to Zhaji Lhamo as "Mamu" (Tibetan: མ་མོ།, a type of female ghost). Folklore expert Charipa Lobsang Namgyal refers to Zhaji Lhamo as "Goddess Sogye Buchi," a term specifically referring to goddesses like Bandan Lhamo. In Lhasa, there's also a view that Zhaji Lhamo is a wrathful incarnation or attendant of Saraswati. In addition, the Sera Monastery Chronicle attempts to construct the existence of a lineage between Zhaji Lhamo and Lelung Xibei Dorje (Tibetan: སླེ་ལུང་བཞད་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ།) through the relationship of dharma transmission, in order to prove that Zhaji Lhamo is one of the incarnations of the guardian goddess Rajni Ma Xunnu (Tibetan: ལྷ་ཅིག་ཉི་མ་གཞོན་ནུ།). Several prayers and practices in the collection of writings written by Lelung Shepal Dorje are associated with Zhaji Lhamo, who is referred to as Mam Sogyal Buchi (Tibetan: མ་མོ་སྲོག་གི་སྤུ་གྲི།).

 

Zhaji Lhamo, the Tibetan goddess of wealth.