Why a pig, a snake, and a bird hold the entire universe together

Cultures · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In Tibetan Buddhist temples, a massive, terrifying wheel painted on the walls serves as a visual map of existence. Held by the god of death, this wheel illustrates how our deepest impulses—ignorance, attachment, and aversion—trap us in an endless, repeating cycle of rebirth, suffering, and transient worldly existence.

The bhavachakra, or wheel of life, is a symbolic teaching tool representing samsara, the cycle of cyclic existence. Its core is anchored by three animals: a pig, a snake, and a bird. These creatures represent the three poisons of ignorance, aversion, and attachment. The pig, symbolizing ignorance, is often depicted as the source from which the snake and bird emerge, suggesting that anger and desire are rooted in a fundamental lack of understanding. These poisons drive the creation of karma, the law of cause and effect, which dictates the quality of one's future rebirth.

The wheel is divided into six realms of existence, which beings traverse based on their accumulated karma. These include three higher realms—gods, demi-gods, and humans—and three lower realms—animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings. While the god realm offers immense pleasure, it is ultimately a trap; beings there are so distracted by abundance that they fail to practice the dharma, eventually exhausting their good karma and falling into lower states. The human realm is considered the most advantageous for spiritual practice, as it balances enough suffering to motivate change without the overwhelming distraction of divine pleasure or the incapacitating agony of the lower realms.

Surrounding these realms is the outer rim, which depicts the twelve links of dependent origination, illustrating the mechanics of how suffering and rebirth perpetuate. The entire wheel is clutched by Yama, the lord of death, who represents impermanence—the truth that everything within this cycle is constantly changing. However, the image also offers a path out. A Buddha is typically shown pointing toward the moon above the wheel, a metaphor for liberation from samsara. This serves as a reminder that while the cycle of becoming is vast and persistent, it is not inescapable.

While the iconography is consistent, representations can vary; some versions depict five realms by combining the god and demi-god categories. The tradition holds that the historical Buddha himself provided the instructions for creating the first bhavachakra, a story recounted in the Divyāvadāna. Today, these murals remain a standard feature on the exterior walls of monasteries across Tibet and India, designed to instruct both monastics and laypeople on the core tenets of Buddhist cosmology.

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