caturmahārājakāyika

Tibetan: རྒྱལ་ཆེན་བཞིའི་རིས་
Tibetan (Wylie): rgyal chen bzhi’i ris
Tibetan (phonetics): gyal chen zhi ri
English term: Four Great Kings
English definition: The lowest of all the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, as well as the lowest of the six that constitute the Desire Realm. It is located on the upper slopes of Moun Sumeru, below the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, and is presided by the Four Great Kings or Four Guardians of the world, one in each of the cardinal directions: Dhṛtarāṣṭra (east; ཡུལ་འཁོར་སྲུང་), Virūḍhaka (south; འཕགས་སྐྱེས་པོ་), Virūpākṣa (west; སྤྱན་མི་བཟང་) and Vaiṡravaṇa (north; རྣམ་ཐོས་སྲས་). As vassals of Shakra, the lord of gods, they are protectors of the Dharma and of beings devoted to it. They are said to have protected the Buddha from the time he entered his mother’s womb and to have presented him with his alms bowl after his enlightenment. In their heaven many other species live, such as nagas, gandharvas, kumbhandas and yakshas.
Spanish: Cuatro Grandes Reyes