The Buddhist deity Yama

Yama Dharmaraja is one of several terrifying forms assumed by the bodhisattva Manjushri—shown at the top center—to defeat the Lord of Death. He is black or dark blue in color, is fiercely animated, and wields a skull-headed cudgel and a coiled lasso. Wearing a crown of skulls and a garland of freshly severed heads, he is surrounded by flames, six fearsome attendants, and grisly offerings in skull cups. Deliberately shocking, the vulgarity of his visible carnal desire for his consort Chaumundi, who is also described as his sister, is matched by that of the bull they stand on, which copulates with a human corpse.