Ksitigarbha (Địa Tạng) and the vow
Ksitigarbha, called Địa Tạng in Vietnamese, is a Bodhisattva of the Mahayana tradition. The name is often explained as "treasury of the earth". He is known in East Asia, including Vietnam, and is not part of the Theravada tradition.
The Ksitigarbha sutra tells of his earlier life as a young woman. Her mother had no respect for the Three Jewels, and when the mother died the daughter was filled with worry for her. She sold what she had, made offerings and spent days in quiet recollection of the Buddha, wishing her mother well. The story says she came to feel a great sense of relief and of peace.
Moved by this experience, she made a vow: she would turn her heart toward all beings who suffer, not only her own mother, and she would not rest until they were free. In another telling the same vow is made by a king, and the story is given as a way of saying that anyone can begin a path of compassion.
For this reason Ksitigarbha is often shown as a monk with a staff and a gem, and is associated with care for people who have died and for those who mourn them. Many temples keep an altar for him, and he is honoured in services of remembrance, including during Vu Lan. Tellings and ways of honouring him differ between regions and temples.
The story is mainly about a daughter's love and about turning a personal grief into care for others. It does not promise any particular result for the dead, and the page claims none. See also the altars page for where his altar is usually found, and Maudgalyayana for another story of a child and a mother.
Related pages
- Avalokiteshvara (Quan Thế Âm), the one who listensAvalokiteshvara, known in Vietnam as Quan Thế Âm, is the Bodhisattva of compassion who listens. A few familiar images and stories, retold briefly.
- Maudgalyayana and filial gratitudeThe story of the disciple Maudgalyayana remembering his mother, the origin of the Vu Lan season of filial gratitude.
- The altars of a Vietnamese templeThe Three Jewels, Avalokiteshvara (Quan Thế Âm), guardian, Duc Ong, Ksitigarbha, ancestral and hungry-ghost altars: what each is for and the usual order of visiting.
- Festivals in Vietnamese Buddhist templesWhat Tet, Buddha's Birthday, Vu Lan and the first and full-moon days mean at the temple and what people usually do. Dates are on the calendar page.
Keep reading
- Buddhist basics in plain words
- Layout of a Vietnamese Buddhist temple
- The altars of a Vietnamese temple
- How to pay respects at a Vietnamese temple
- Buddhist calendar
- Uposatha, full-moon and new-moon days
- Buddhist glossary for temple visitors
- Avalokiteshvara (Quan Thế Âm), the one who listens
- The Buddha's awakening
- Two Jataka tales
- Maudgalyayana and filial gratitude
- Visiting a Vietnamese temple: common questions
- Temple etiquette: how to behave in a Vietnamese temple
- Offerings: what flowers, fruit, water, lamps and incense mean
- Festivals in Vietnamese Buddhist temples
- Kisa Gotami and the mustard seed
- The blind men and the elephant
- The poisoned arrow
- Angulimala, the road back
- Sujata and the bowl of milk rice