by Jñānavajra
The Ārya Jambhala Stotra is a tantric praise of Jambhala, the Buddhist god of wealth and abundance. Known in Tibetan as Dzambhala (ཛམབྷལ) or by his translated name Mukdzin (རྨུགས་འཛིན), he is the wrathful bestower of material fortune — a stout, dark-blue dwarfish figure adorned with serpent ornaments, holding a blood-filled skull cup and a jewel-spewing mongoose. He belongs to the family of the Buddha Akṣobhya and is closely related to Kubera-Vaiśravaṇa, the pan-Asian lord of wealth.
Composed by the Indian paṇḍita Jñānavajra (also catalogued by 84000.co under the name Advayajñānavajra), this short hymn of five verses follows the structure of tantric stotra poetry: a visual description of the deity’s form, praise of his attributes and powers, and a closing dedication of merit. The final verse identifies the deity by the name Ucchusma (ཨུ་ཙུཥྨ), his wrathful purifying aspect, and prays that all beings be freed from the bonds of poverty.
This is the first English translation. No prior English version is known to exist. The text is preserved in the Degé edition of the Tengyur (Tohoku catalogue number 3749), within the Tantra Treatises section, folios 84b.4–84b.7 of Volume 79.
Homage to Ārya Jambhala!
The glorious Lord of Waters, the Protector,
With one face and two hands, a body of splendor,
His complexion dark blue, radiating light,
The Buddha Akṣobhya seated upon his crown,
Adorned with ornaments of the eight great nāgas —
To the source of all wishes, I prostrate and praise!
His right hand holds a skull cup filled with blood,
His left grasps a treasure-mongoose.
For beings greatly tormented by poverty,
To the fulfiller of hopes and desires, I prostrate and praise!
In wrathful guise, hair streaming upward,
A stout dwarf, plump as a young child,
Seated in the posture of ease upon the wealth-lord’s throne —
To the source of every wish without remainder, I prostrate and praise!
Fangs bared, with the sound HŪṂ subduing the unruly,
By mere remembrance accomplishing whatever is wished —
Wish-fulfilling jewel endowed with every virtue,
Glorious Lord of Waters, to you I prostrate and praise!
Through this devoted praise of Ucchusma,
Whatever boundless holy merit is gained,
May I and all sentient beings without exception
Be freed from the bonds of poverty’s suffering!
The Praise of Noble Jambhala composed by the Paṇḍita Jñānavajra is complete.
Colophon
The Ārya Jambhala Stotra (འཕགས་པ་རྨུགས་འཛིན་ལ་བསྟོད་པ) is a tantric praise hymn preserved in the Degé edition of the Tengyur, Tohoku catalogue number 3749 (D3749). It was composed by the Indian paṇḍita Jñānavajra (པཎྜི་ཏ་ཛྙཱ་ན་བཛྲས), also catalogued by 84000.co under the name Advayajñānavajra. The text occupies folios 84b.4 through 84b.7 of Volume 79 (Tantra Treatises section). No prior English translation is known to exist.
Good Works Translation from Tibetan by Dorje (Tibetan Translator, life 80) of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026. Translated independently from the Degé Tibetan. No existing English translation was consulted, as none is known to exist.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
Related: Praise of Ārya Jambhala by Candra (D3748) — the devotional prayer to the same deity, from the same volume. Jñānavajra praises the god's form; Candra weeps before him. · Praise of the Goddess Vasudhārā (D3752) — the female counterpart, by Jamāri. · Praise of Gaṇapati by Atiśa (D3739) — the elephant-headed emanation of Avalokiteśvara, also from Volume 79. Four wealth-deity praises from the Tengyur.
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Source Text: འཕགས་པ་རྨུགས་འཛིན་ལ་བསྟོད་པ
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0). Volume 79, folios 84b.4–84b.7. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཱརྱ་ཛམྦྷ་ལ་སྟོ་ཏྲ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། འཕགས་པ་རྨུགས་འཛིན་ལ་བསྟོད་པ། འཕགས་པ་ཛམྦྷ་ལ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
དཔལ་ལྡན་ཆུ་དབང་མགོན་པོ་ནི། །ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་གཉིས་བརྗིད་པའི་སྐུ། །སྐུ་མདོག་སྔོ་ནག་འོད་ཟེར་འཕྲོ། །མི་བསྐྱོད་སངས་རྒྱས་དབུ་ལ་བཞུགས། །ཀླུ་ཆེན་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་རྒྱན་གྱིས་བརྒྱན། །དགོས་འདོད་འབྱུང་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
ཕྱག་གཡས་ཐོད་པ་ཁྲག་བཀང་བསྣམས། །གཡོན་པ་གཏེར་གྱི་ནེའུ་ལེ་འཛིན། །འགྲོ་བ་དབུལ་བས་རབ་གདུངས་པའི། །རེ་འདོད་སྐོང་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
ཁྲོ་བོའི་ཆ་ལུགས་དབུ་སྐྲ་གྱེན་དུ་བརྫེས། །མིའུ་ཐུང་བྱིས་པ་གཞོན་པའི་ཤ་རྒྱས་པ། །ནོར་བདག་གདན་ལ་བརྐྱང་བསྐུམ་ཚུལ་དུ་བཞུགས། །དགོས་འདོད་མ་ལུས་འབྱུང་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
མཆེ་བ་རབ་གཙིགས་ཧཱུྃ་སྒྲས་མ་རུངས་གདུལ། །དྲན་པ་ཙམ་གྱིས་ཅི་བསམས་འགྲུབ་པར་མཛད། །ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཀུན་ལྡན་པ། །དཔལ་ལྡན་ཆུ་དབང་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད།
ཨུ་ཙུཥྨ་ལ་གུས་པས་བསྟོད་པ་ཡིས། །བསོད་ནམས་མཐའ་ཡས་དམ་པ་གང་ཐོབ་དེས། །བདག་དང་སེམས་ཅན་མ་ལུས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི། །དབུལ་ཕོངས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་འཆིང་ལས་གྲོལ་བར་ཤོག
འཕགས་པ་རྨུགས་འཛིན་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཛྙཱ་ན་བཛྲས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།། །།
Source Colophon
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition, published on GitHub (github.com/Esukhia/derge-tengyur) under a CC0 public domain dedication. Based on the Degé woodblock prints of the Tengyur, the standard critical edition of the Tibetan Buddhist commentarial canon. Volume 79, Tantra Treatises section (rgyud ’grel), Tohoku catalogue number 3749. Folios 84b.4–84b.7.
The Esukhia project was directed by Elie Roux. The digital text was proofread against the original woodblock prints.
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