Phurba

ritual object · Tibet · East Asia and Pacific

The phurba is the three-sided ritual dagger of Tibetan Buddhism, whose pommel is carved with the head of a wrathful deity such as Vajrakilaya and whose triangular blade is meant to pin down demonic forces at the boundary between the worlds. Used by lamas in exorcism and meditation rituals, the phurba transfixes evil like a tent-peg, and in the rituals of the Nyingma school it is treated as the vehicle of the deity Vajrakilaya himself. The dagger is made of iron, brass, or wood, and inscribed and consecrated examples survive in temple collections; some are old weapons pressed into ritual servic

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