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Buddhism underwent a total reformation in the 12th century...about the same time that Buddha sorta 'became' an avatar of Lord Vishnu, to bring the religion of Buddhism back within the 'Hindu fold' to appeal to the totally uneducated and illiterate masses of the time.
In the contemporary Buddhist catechism, there is "no God" and "no Self" as it was pretty much the desire of Buddhists to bring the philosophy of Buddhism under the auspices of Advaita Vedanta which was also gaining notoriety around the same time to popularise it...and perhaps as a 'backlash' to all those gung-ho Vaishnavites who sought to place the preceptor of an atheist philosophy under the auspices OF a Hindu deity.
*reading the Akashic Records is fun...but I digress*
Before the reformation of Buddhist thought, those in Nepal and Tibet worshiped tribal deities...they worshiped Tutelary Deities or "Gods" and the most prevalent and significant of these, were the Hindu God(desses) Mahakaal (Bhairava) which is the 'terrible form' of Lord Shiva and also Dakini (Tara, Lolita) as being the 'Red Dakini" or Bhuvaneshwari which resides in the Muladhara Chakra...riding her Elephant or existing alongside Ganesha under the vibration of the bija "LAM".
So, when Buddhism came to Tibet, the populace was told "you can keep your beliefs, but also integrate ours" thus Vajrayana was born...along with Buddhist Tantra.
In the local dialect, the letter "B" is interchangeable with "V" and the suffix of "ava" became synonymous with "achana" and so, Bhairava became the "Adi Buddha" known as Vairochana...it's all quite long and convoluted.
Please compare the images of Kala Bhairava (Hinduism) with Maha Kala Bernagchen (Buddhism)...and for some reason, Google won't let me post images anymore...which sucks. lol
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