Thagyamin


Thagyamin is the highest-ranking nat in traditional Burmese Buddhist belief. Considered king of the second heaven above Catumaharcika, he is derived from the Buddhist deva Śakra and the Hindu deity Indra.

Description

Thagyamin is often portrayed as holding a conch shell in one hand, and a yak-tail fly-whisk in the other, and seated or standing atop a three-headed white elephant. He is described as the ruler of the deva plane of existence, called Trāyastriṃśa.
He was designated the preeminent of the official pantheon of 37 atet nat by King Anawrahta in the 11th century, in an effort to streamline animist practices among the populace and merge these practices with Theravada Buddhism. He is the only nat in the official pantheon not to have undergone a sudden and violent death, called a "green" or "raw" death.

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