Siva Bhairava Mask, Musée Guimet-Paris

The Guimet Museum (French: Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet or Musée Guimet) is a museum of Asian art located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It has one of the largest collections of Asian art outside Asia.

The museum which was first located at Lyon in 1879 and was handed over to the state and transferred to Paris in 1885,^{[citation needed]} was founded by Émile Étienne Guimet, an industrialist. Devoted to travel, Guimet was in 1876 commissioned by the minister of public instruction to study the religions of the Far East, and the museum contains many of the fruits of this expedition, including a fine collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain and many objects relating not merely to the religions of the East but also to those of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. One of its wings, the Panthéon Bouddhique, displays religious artworks.

From December 2006 to April 2007, the museum harboured collections of the Kabul Museum, with archaeological pieces from the Greco-Bactrian city of Ai-Khanoum, and the Indo-Scythian treasure of Tillia Tepe.

Bhairava (Sanskrit: भैरव, "Terrible" or "Frightful",), sometimes known as Bhairo or Bhairon or Bhairadya or Bheruji (In Rajasthan), Kaala Bhairavar or Vairavar (In Tamil), is the fierce manifestation of Lord Shiva associated with annihilation. He is one of the most important deities of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Nepal who originated in Hindu mythology and is sacred to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains alike.

He is depicted ornamented with a range of twisted serpents, which serve as earrings, bracelets, anklets, and sacred thread (yajnopavita). He wears a tiger skin and a ritual apron composed of human bones. Bhairava has a dog (Shvan) as his divine vahana (vehicle). Bhairavi, a fierce and terrifying aspect of the Devi who virtually indistinguishable from Kali, with the exception of her particular identification as the consort of the Bhairava.

Bhairava himself has eight manifestations: Kala Bhairava, Asitanga Bhairava, Samhara Bhairava, Ruru Bhairava, Krodha Bhairava, Kapala Bhairava, Rudra Bhirava and Unmatta Bhairava. Kala Bhairava is conceptualized as the Guru of the planetary deity Saturn. Bhairava is known as Vairavar in Tamil where he is often presented as a Grama Devata or folk deity who safeguards the devotee on all eight directions (ettu tikku). Known in Sinhalese as Bahirawa, he protects treasures. Lord Bhairava is the main deity worshipped by the Aghora sect.