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'''Eight classes of gods and demons''' (Tib. ལྷ་འདྲེ་སྡེ་བརྒྱད་, ''lha dré dé gyé'', [[Wyl.]] ''lha 'dre sde brgyad'') — a classification of worldly spirits. There are many different classifications; one of them is:

* dü (Skt. ''māra''; Tib. [[བདུད་]], Wyl. ''bdud'')—see [[four maras]]
* [[mamo]] (Skt. ''mātṛkā''; Tib. མ་མོ་, Wyl. ''ma mo'')
* [[naga]] ( Skt. ''nāga''; Tib. [[ཀླུ་]], ''lu''; Wyl. ''klu'')
* [[ging]] ( Skt. ''kiṃkaras''; Tib. གིང་, Wyl. ''ging'')
* [[rahula]] (Skt. ''rāhula'')
* [[tsen]] (Tib. བཙན་, Wyl. ''btsan'')
* [[rakshasa]] (Skt. ''rākṣasa''; Tib. [[སྲིན་པོ་]], ''sinpo''; Wyl. ''srin po'')
* [[yaksha]] (Skt. ''yakṣa''; Tib. གནོད་སྦྱིན་, Wyl. ''gnod sbyin'')

On an inner level, they correspond to the [[eight consciousnesses]].

==Alternative Classifications==
Alternative classifications include gods and demons such as:
*[[gods]] (Skt. ''deva''; Tib. [[ལྷ་]], Wyl. ''lha'')
*yama (Skt.; Tib. [[གཤིན་རྗེ་]], Wyl. ''gshin rje'')
*[[gyalpo]] (Tib. [[རྒྱལ་པོ་]], Wyl. ''rgyal po'')
*[[earth lord]]s (Tib. ས་བདག་, Wyl. ''sa bdag'')
*[[kinnara]] (Tib. [[མིའམ་ཅི་]], Wyl. ''mi'am ci'')
*[[teurang]] (Tib. ཐེའུ་རང་, Wyl. ''the'u rang'')

According to [[Nupchen Sangye Yeshe|Nubchen Sangye Yeshe]]'s  “''Dergye Serkyem''” (Tib. སྡེ་བརྒྱད་གསེར་སྐྱེམས་, Wyl. ''sde brgyad gser skyems''), “''Offering of Golden Drink to the Eight Classes''”, there are six series of eightfold groups of spirits.<ref>[[Dudjom Rinpoche]], ''The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Volume 2.'' For a detailed description, see pages 158-159.</ref>

==References==
<small><references/></small>

==Further Reading==
*''Revue d'Études Tibétaines'', Number 2, April 2003 - Numéro spécial ''Lha srin sde brgyad''

[[Category:Gods and demons]]
[[Category:Classes of beings]]
[[category:Enumerations]]
[[Category:08-Eight]]