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He owes his elevation to the fact that Vajra, originally meaning simply thunderbolt, came to be used as a mystical expression for the highest truth. More important than these is Kshitigarbha, Ti-tsang or Jizō who in China and Japan ranks second only to Kuan-yin.
Ti-tsang Wang then came to Hsiang Shan, and was so astonished at her virtue that he inquired of the local t'u-ti as to what had brought about this wonderful result. "With the exception of Ju Lai, in all the west no one equals her in dignity and perfection. She is the Queen of the three thousand P'u-sa's and of all the beings on earth who have skin and blood.
He is often represented as a monk, staff in hand and with shaven head. The origin of this guise is not clear and it perhaps refers to his previous births. But in the eighth century a monk of Chiu Hua was regarded as an incarnation of Ti-tsang and after death his body was gilded and enshrined as an object of worship.
He is primarily a deity of the nether world, but like Amitâbha and Avalokita he made a vow to help all living creatures and specially to deliver them from hell. The Taoists pictured hell as divided into ten departments ruled over by as many kings, and Chinese fancy made Ti-tsang the superintendent of these functionaries.
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