The second phase (8th-10 cent.) represents the WDO as an independent deity with his own attendants. He serves as the personification of his master’s wisdom and abilities. The first and longest phase (6th-12th cent.) depicts the WDO as a dwarfish attendant to a full-size Bodhisattva. Wrathful Destroyers of Obstacles (WDO, hereafter) appear in three recognized iconographic phases stretching from the sixth to the twelfth-century. Esoteric Buddhism first developed in India as an offshoot of Mahayana Buddhism during the sixth-century CE. But did you know it has a connection to the Wrathful Destroyers of Obstacles (Sanskrit: krodha-vighnantaka), a class of supreme guardian deities in Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism?īefore I continue, some historical background is needed. This tiger skin clothing is a highly recognizable element of Monkey’s iconography (fig. He cuts a large square from the fur and uses half to create a loincloth to cover his naked body (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. After being released from his mountain prison in chapter fourteen, Sun Wukong effortlessly kills a tiger with his iron staff and uses a magic hair-turned-knife to skin the beast.