Naraka (Buddhism) - Cold Narakas

Cold Narakas

• Arbuda (頞部陀), the "blister" Naraka. This is a dark, frozen plain surrounded by icy mountains and continually swept by blizzards. Inhabitants of this world arise fully grown and abide lifelong naked and alone, while the cold raises blisters upon their bodies. The length of life in this Naraka is said to be the time it would take to empty a barrel of sesame seed if one only took out a single seed every hundred years.

• Nirarbuda (刺部陀), the "burst blister" Naraka. This Naraka is even colder than the one above, and here the blisters burst open, leaving the beings' bodies covered with frozen blood and pus.

• Aṭaṭa (頞听陀), the "shivering" Naraka. Here the beings shiver in the cold, making an aṭ-aṭ-aṭ sound with their mouths.

• Hahava (臛臛婆), the "lamentation" Naraka. Here the beings lament in the cold, going ha, ho in pain.

• Huhuva (虎々婆), the "chattering teeth" Naraka. Here the beings shiver as their teeth chatter, making the sound hu, hu.

• Utpala (嗢鉢羅), the "blue lotus" Naraka. Here the intense cold makes the skin turn blue like the colour of an utpala waterlily.

• Padma (鉢特摩), the "lotus" Naraka. In this Naraka the blizzard cracks open the frozen skin leaving one raw and bloody.

• Mahāpadma (摩訶鉢特摩), the "great lotus" Naraka. Here the whole body cracks into pieces and the internal organs are exposed to the cold and they also crack.

Each lifetime in these Narakas is twenty times the length of the one before it.