Our King Yama (閻羅王) doesn't ride a buffalo.
Though one of his guardians is called Ox-head (牛頭) and helps to bring the newly deceased before the court of King Yama.
In Indian mythology, Yama is shown as riding a water buffalo and sitting on a lion throne.
He is a very old god, having mythological origins that are older than language and civilization itself, and thus shares similarity with other gods of death in polytheistic religions ( Hades, Osiris, Thanatos ).
His primary job is to judge a person based on his Karma and assign him to hell, Heaven or Rebirth.
A good thing about old religions is that in them, sinners go to hell ,even if the sinner is a god. In Abrahmic religions, if you are not member of that religion, you are assigned to hell irrespective of your Karma ;while in Eastern ones, religion does not matter in afterlife. If you are a sinner, you are assigned to hell, irrespective of your religion.
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