Eight classes of gods and demons

Eight classes of gods and demons (Skt. Aṣṭagatyaḥ or Aṣṭauparṣadaḥ; Tib. ལྷ་འདྲེ་སྡེ་བརྒྱད་, lha dré dé gyé, Wyl. lha 'dre sde brgyad) — a classification of worldly spirits. There are many different classifications; one of them is:

• dü (Skt. māra; Tib. བདུད་, Wyl. bdud)—see four maras
• mamo (Skt. mātṛkā; Tib. མ་མོ་, Wyl. ma mo)
• naga ( Skt. nāga; Tib. ཀླུ་, lu; Wyl. klu)
• ging ( Skt. kiṃkaras; Tib. གིང་, Wyl. ging)
• rahula (Skt. rāhula)
• tsen (Tib. བཙན་, Wyl. btsan)
• rakshasa (Skt. rākṣasa; Tib. སྲིན་པོ་, sinpo; Wyl. srin po)
• yaksha (Skt. yakṣa; Tib. གནོད་སྦྱིན་, Wyl. gnod sbyin)

On an inner level, they correspond to the eight consciousnesses.

Alternative Classifications

Alternative classifications include gods and demons such as:

• gods (Skt. deva; Tib. ལྷ་, Wyl. lha)
• yama (Skt.; Tib. གཤིན་རྗེ་, Wyl. gshin rje)
• gyalpo (Tib. རྒྱལ་པོ་, Wyl. rgyal po)
• earth lords (Tib. ས་བདག་, Wyl. sa bdag)
• kinnara (Tib. མིའམ་ཅི་, Wyl. mi'am ci)
• teurang (Tib. ཐེའུ་རང་, Wyl. the'u rang)

According to Nubchen Sangye Yeshe's “Dergye Serkyem” (Tib. སྡེ་བརྒྱད་གསེར་སྐྱེམས་, Wyl. sde brgyad gser skyems), “Offering of Golden Drink to the Eight Classes”, there are six series of eightfold groups of spirits.

In East Asia, the following listing is common:

• gods (Skt. deva; Tib. ལྷ་, Wyl. lha)
• naga (Skt. nāga; Tib. ཀླུ་ Wyl. klu)
• yaksha (Skt. yakṣa; Tib. གནོད་སྦྱིན་, Wyl. gnod sbyin)
• gandharva (Tib. དྲི་ཟ་, Wyl. dri za)
• asura (Tib. ལྷ་མིན་ (Wyl. lha min) or ལྷ་མ་ཡིན་ (Wyl. lha ma yin)
• garuda (Skt. garuḍa; Tib. ཁྱུང་, Wyl. khyung)
• kinnara (Tib. མིའམ་ཅི་, Wyl. mi'am ci)
• mahoraga (Tib. ལྟོ་འཕྱེ་ཆེན་པོ་ (Wyl. lto 'phye chen po)

Further Reading

• Revue d'Études Tibétaines, Number 2, April 2003 - Numéro spécial Lha srin sde brgyad