The two Citipati are protector deities or dharmapalas in Tibetan Buddhism. They consist of two skeletal deities, one male and one female. Both are depicted dancing wildly with intertwined limbs in a halo of flames. The Citipati are invoked both as wrathful deities and as benevolent protectors of fierce apparitions. They are protectors of the cemeteries.
The dance of the Citipati is celebrated twice a year in Tibet. The Citipati should not be confused with the skeleton dancers of the Tibetan Buddhist Cham dance tradition.
Legend
The Citipati were a pair of ascetics who meditated near a cemetery. In their deep state of meditation, they did not notice a thief who had sneaked up on them. The thief decapitated them and threw them into the dirt, whereupon they reached the next level of ascetic practices. Enraged by the act, the Citipati swore revenge on the thief and thus became the arch-enemy of thieves and other criminals.
The Citipati cannot leave their graveyards. They can only apprehend thieves who pass through it. While they wait for criminals, they pass the time by dancing and blowing horns, a ritual that is re-enacted by Tibetan monks twice a year. Their dance also serves as a symbol of death and rebirth, as the Citipati are made up of both halves of the human body, the male and female, and their skeletal form is a reminder of the transience of life and eternal change.