Four guardians

In Himalayan  Buddhist  cultures,the teachings of the  Buddha are thought to be very powerful and, accordingly, dangerous if approached without proper prerequisites. Thus,to protect the teachings  from unwarranted interference, and to simultaneously protect unsuspecting people  from ignorant contact with their  powerful contents, the symbolic presence of a series of guardians is invoked artistically. These guardians derive from an ancient series of four  warriors. Each of them  preside over one of the four cosmic directions, which correspond to the four  sides of Mount Meru; like the Greek Olympus, Meru is the symbolic axis of the cosmos in the Indo-Tibetan mythos.

On this sutra cover, the guardians are from left to right: Virudhaka drawing his sword (south);Virupaksha with his snake and stupa (west);Vaishravana carrying a banner and mongoose (north); and Dhritarashtra playing his lute,
or pi-pa (east). They appear against a landscape of craggy rocks and rosy clouds. Offerings such as ingots  of gold, jewels, and elephant tusks are strewn  in front of them.