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It might surprise you to know there even is a Buddhist hell. There is a realm of hells, in fact. Called Niraya in Pali or Naraka in Sanskrit, it is one of the Six Realms of the World of Desire, which is one of the Three Worlds of old Buddhist cosmology.
If you are interested in where Naraka originated and how it is described in Buddhist sutras, please see "The Buddhist Hell Realm." For a discussion on how the hell ream is understood -- is it real, or allegory?-- see "Understanding the Buddhist Hell Realm." Note that when I write about the hell realm I usually treat is as an allegory, although it's understood many ways.
This article is about the characters you might meet in Naraka, if you go there, and what function they serve.
Yama
Yama is lord of the hell realm, a job he has held since before there was Buddhism. He was first mentioned in the Vedas, Hindu scriptures that already were a few centuries old when the historical Buddha was born.
The Buddhist version of Yama does not judge. His role is to oversee punishments for those who come under his jurisdiction, but it is a person's own karma that put him in that unhappy state. Yama also sends "messengers," or warnings, to people who are on the path to his realm. Such messengers might include the sights of an elderly person or a corpse, reminding us that old age and death waits for us, too.
The important thing to understand about Yama is that he's not a bad guy. Yes, he has a terrifying appearance, but that's because frightening people is part of his job. He is in fact a dharmapala, or a protector of the dharma. His ultimate purpose is to help all beings realize enlightenment.
Yama is known to have a host of "helpers," something like demon soldiers, who live with him in the hell realms and carry out his orders. Even Yama and his soldiers hope someday to be released from hell when the karma of what they do is exhausted. To this end, they regularly punish themselves for torturing others by drinking melted metal.
Ksitigarbha
Ksitigarbha is the bodhisattva of hell beings. This bodhisattva is said to travel freely among the Six Realms, guiding beings in the bardo, and he often is called upon to be a protector of deceased children. But his primary mission is to rescue people in hell and guide them out of it.
It his said that once Ksitigarbha was a girl whose mother died and was reborn in the hell realm. The worked tireless to obtain merit, dedicated to her mother, so that her suffering would be eased. One day she was shown a vision of the hell realm, and a hell-soldier told her that her mother had been liberated.
But the girl was so disturbed at the sight of other beings in torment that she vowed to free them all. "If I do not go to the hell to help the suffering beings there, who else will go?" she said. "I will not become a Buddha until the hells are empty. Only when all beings have been saved, will I enter Nirvana."
Ksitigarbha sometimes is depicted standing, surrounded by the flames of hell. He wears monk's robes with his feet showing, indicating that he travels. He carries a wish-fulfilling jewel and a staff with six rings, symbolizing his mastery of the Six Realms.
Avalokiteshvara
The Bhava-chakra, or Wheel of Life, is a graphical depiction of the Six Realms. The Bhava-chakra often shows a bodhisattva in each realm, including hell. This teaches us that no matter how desperate our circumstances, the dharma is always available to us. And that bodhisattva is Avalokiteshvara.
It is said Avalokiteshvara -- who is sometimes described as male but is more often female -- has traveled to all of the Six Realms,and in her presence they become something like heavens. When she entered the hell realm, all the torture devices disappeared, and lotus blossoms bloomed everywhere.
Avalokiteshvara can be understood as the embodiment of bodhicitta, or the desire to realize enlightenment for the sake of all beings. A person who has cultivated bodhicitta is immediately liberated from the hell realm.
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