King Yama

Lord of the Underworld

Sovereign of the dead who reads the registers of life and judges every soul.

King Yama, Lord of the Underworld, entered China from Indian Buddhism and became the sovereign who judges the dead. In the developed folk system he is but the fifth of the Ten Kings of the courts of hell, yet his name stands for all of them. Holding the register of life and death, he weighs every soul’s deeds before the wheel of rebirth turns.