Dharmapāla (traditional Chinese: 護法, pinyin: Hùfǎ) (530–561 CE).
A Buddhist scholar, he was one of the main teachers of the Yogacara school in India.
[1] Xuanzang, the famous Chinese pilgrim, tells that Dharmapāla was born in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu.
He was a son of a high official, and betrothed to a daughter of the king, but escaped on the eve of the wedding feast, entered the order, studied all views,[2] from Hinayana as well as Mahayana, and attained to reverence and distinction.
[4] Through the teachings of his disciple Silabhadra to Xuanzang, Dharmapāla’s tenets expanded greatly in China.