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The is a divine creature with human torso and birdlike head in Japanese Hindu-Buddhist mythology. The name is a transliteration〔 of Garuda (Sanskrit: '〔 गरुड ; Pāli: ') a race of enoromously gigantic birds in Hinduism,〔Hindu Gods and Goddesses in Japan By Saroj Kumar Chaudhuri p.151〕 upon which the Japanese Buddhist version is based. The same creature may go by the name of .〔 The karura is said to be enormous,〔. Japanese dictionary, 2nd revised edition〕 fire-breathing,〔 and to feed on dragons/serpents,〔 just as Garuda is the bane of Nāgas. Only a dragon who possesses a Buddhist talisman, or one who has converted to the Buddhist teaching, can escape unharmed from the Karura. Shumisen or Mount Meru is said to be its habitat.〔 Karura is one of the proselytized and converted creatures recruited to form a guardian unit called the .〔, Item #3-2, p.vii (English caption), 32-33 (photo), p.189 (text by Kaneko, Tomoaki(金子智明))〕〔The multilexic dictionary does not give an English or any other language equivalent for this entry.〕 One famous example is the ''karura'' statue at Kōfukuji temple, Nara (amongst the eight deva statues presented at dated to the year Tenpyō 6 or 734 AD, pictured top right).〔 This karura is depicted as wearing Chinese Tang dynasty style armor, and thus is seen wingless. But more conventionally, the ''karura'' (garuda) is depicted as a winged being with human torso and avian head, as in the Vajra Hall () section of the Womb Realm mandala () and other iconographic books and scrolls.〔 ==Fine art== The karura (garuda) mask is one of the stock character masks worn by performers of the ancient Japanese courtly dance art of gigaku.〔〔 The flaming nimbus or halo is known by the name "karura flame"〔 and typically seen adorning behind the statue of the ). The karura is also said to be the prototype of the depictions of the ''tengu''〔 or ''karasutengu''.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「karura」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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