Sacred Object
Phurba
Tibetan: ཕུར་བ། · Sanskrit: Kīla
The phurba (Sanskrit: kila) is a three-sided ritual dagger central to Vajrayana Buddhist practice, most closely associated with the wrathful deity Vajrakilaya and, through him, with Guru Rinpoche's traditional accomplishment of the Vajrakilaya practice at Pharping in the Kathmandu Valley.
- Category
- Ritual implement
Material Culture & Craftsmanship
Phurbas are traditionally forged in metal — often bronze or iron, with meteoric iron particularly prized for consecrated ritual use — with a three-faced blade tapering to a point, a central section often carved with a wrathful deity face or serpent motifs, and a handle frequently topped with the head of a horse or a half-vajra.
Newar and Tibetan metalworkers both maintain traditions of phurba-making, and Kathmandu Valley workshops, including those near Pharping and Boudhanath, remain active centers of production for both ritual and devotional/collector's market use.
Symbolism
The phurba's three-sided blade is associated with the subjugation and "liberation" — in the specific tantric sense of transforming negative forces rather than literal violence — of the three root mental poisons (attachment, aversion and ignorance), and with piercing through obstacles obstructing spiritual practice.
Ritual Use
In formal tantric ritual, the phurba is used by initiated practitioners in visualization and ritual practices associated with Vajrakilaya and related wrathful-deity cycles; such practice is traditionally restricted to those with appropriate empowerment and is not depicted here as general instruction.
Pharping, on the Kathmandu Valley's southern rim, is traditionally held to be where Guru Rinpoche attained the accomplishment (siddhi) of the Vajrakilaya practice associated with the phurba, making the site especially significant to practitioners of this particular tantric cycle.
Sources & References
- The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism — L. Austine Waddell, W. H. Allen & Co. (1895) · Link
Public domain.