Like a visitor from some remote part of the universe, the deity Ashura of Kofukuji Temple in Nara appears with six spindly arms frozen in motion and three faces on a single head that is crowned with a perfectly groomed hairdo. The body is slender and graceful and little imagination is needed to see the numinous figure spring into action like those brilliant deaf Chinese performers who visited Japan last year and amazed all with their synchronized interpretation of the 1,000-armed Kannon bodhisattva.
What are we to make of this extraordinary being? Most religious images represent something — aspired-to ideals or an aspect of doctrine — and in Buddhism, they often have antecedents in Indian Hinduism, just as some Christian saints reveal thinly-veneered attributes of earlier Greek or Egyptian deities.
The Ashura is one of eight deva, deities protecting the Buddha, that derive from even more ancient beings in Hindu mythology, revered for their warriorlike, violent and passionate nature. They rank among the lowest deities in the Buddhist pantheon. Although equipped with amazing supernatural powers, they are still far from enlightenment and the goal of release from death and rebirth.