A Wisdom King is a type of wrathful deity in East Asian Buddhism.
Carved cliff relief of Yamantaka (Dàwēidé Míngwáng), one out of a set depicting the Ten Wisdom Kings, at the Dazu Rock Carvings in Chongqing, China. 12th century.
Manjushri with Yamāntaka, from Kurkihar (Bihar), currently at the Indian Museum in Kolkata. 10th century.
Yamāntaka (Daiitoku Myōō), at Tō-ji in Kyoto, Japan. Kamakura period (13th or 14th century).
Statues of the Five Wisdom Buddhas (五智如来, Gochi Nyorai) at Kongō Sanmai-in in Mount Kōya, Japan. Kamakura period (13th century). Clockwise starting from the front right: Amoghasiddhi, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, and Amitabha. Vairochana is at the center.
In Buddhism, wrathful deities or fierce deities are the fierce, wrathful or forceful forms of enlightened Buddhas, Bodhisattvas or Devas ; normally the same figure has other, peaceful, aspects as well. Because of their power to destroy the obstacles to enlightenment, they are also termed krodha-vighnantaka, "Wrathful onlookers on destroying obstacles". Wrathful deities are a notable feature of the iconography of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, especially in Tibetan art. These types of deities first appeared in India during the late 6th century, with its main source being the Yaksha imagery, and became a central feature of Indian Tantric Buddhism by the late 10th or early 11th century.
Mahakala statue, holding a flaying knife (kartika) and skullcup (kapala)
Vajrayogini, a semi-wrathful dakini who is also known as sarvabuddhaḍākiṇī, the all-buddha Dakini.
Yamantaka, also known as Vajrabhairava.
Ekajati, also known as Blue Tara or Ugra Tara.
