Vaishravana

Illustration of Buddha wearing red robes and holding a golden staff while sitting on a red and gold throne. There is a white lion with a blue and gold sun rising behind them. They are standing on green grass and there are green, white, and dark blue clouds in the blue sky background.

The image on the button depicts a manifestation of Vaishravana (Son of Namto), the Buddhist Lord of Wealth.

The wrathful warrior god with wide round eyes gazing to the side, is a guardian of the North, leader of the Kings of the Four directions. He is wearing gold beaded jewelry and riding his growling white lion on a speckled sun disk through clouds. He is a benevolent god who bestows wealth and protects Dharma. He is holding the victory banners in his hands, safeguarding against harmful interference. In Buddhism, lions are proud and majestic and they're often symbolic of the bodhisattvas, beings who have attained a high level of spiritual development and made the vow to renounce the happiness of the highest enlightenment. The iconographic representation of the lion might be originated in Persia.

Vaishravana symbols and statues could be found in many religious sanctuaries across Asia. In some depictions, he can be seen holding a mongoose caught in the moment of spewing a jewel on his right hand. Atisha, a Buddhist teacher from the Pala Empire of Bengal and a key figure in Tibetan Buddhism, popularized this form of Vaishravana riding a snow lion during the 11th century.