Begtse (Tibetan: བེག་ཚེ་, Wylie: beg tse chen lcam sring; "Begtse the Great Coat of Mail") is a dharmapala and the lord of war in Tibetan Buddhism, originally a pre-Buddhist war god of the Mongols.Chiodo, Elisabetta. "The Mongolian Manuscripts on Birch Bark from Xarbuxyn Balgas in the Collection of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences." Asiatische Forschungen, 2000, p.149.
Name The name Begtse is a loanword from Mongolian begder, meaning "coat of mail". He is also given the name and epithet Jamsaran (Tibetan: ལག་མིང་གསུམ་པ་, lCam sring), meaning "Great Coat of Mail", which is a translation of the Mongolian.Chiodo, 2000, p.149
Description Begtse is depicted with red skin and orange-red hair, possessing two arms (as opposed to other Mahākālas, who have four or six), three blood-shot eyes, and wielding a sword in his right hand. In his left hand, he holds a human heart. His right arm also holds a bow and arrow and a halberd with a banner. He wears a chainmail shirt, which gave rise to his name, Jamsaran, and a Mongolian helmet adorned with a crown of five skulls and four banners at the back. He is accompanied by his consort, Rikpay Lhamo, and his main general, Laihansorgodog. Surrounding them are Jamsaran's satellites, the twenty-nine butchers.Pegg, Carole. Mongolian Music, Dance, & Oral Narrative, 2001, p.158
Culture Jamsaran is represented in Mongolian, and to a lesser extent Tibetan, Cham dance.Pegg, 2001, pp.158–159
See also Beg tse, a ceratopsian dinosaur named after the deity King Gesar, regarded as an incarnation of JamsaranChiodo, 2000, p.149, footnote 11 Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, called an incarnation of Jamsaran by his followers
Citations
General and cited references
External links Himalayan Art Resources. https://web.archive.org/web/20131101134355/http://www.thangka.ru/gallery/ge_jamsaran.html