Bewitchers

Bewitchers ('gong po)

• A class of malign spirits, headed by Yam-shud dMar-po, who frequent the atmosphere and the earth, and who were bound under an oath of allegiance to Buddhism by Padmasambhava during the eighth century. Nowadays, too, in order to counteract their malign influence, they are ritually exorcised by means of substitute-offferings (glud) and thread-crosses (mdos). On the bewitchers, see Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet, pp. 283-285. GD (from the Glossary to Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings)