Tara holds a very high position in the Buddhist pantheon, she is
regarded as the most powerful and popular goddess. Tara is the
savior goddess and is also conceived as mother goddess. Tara
also means Mahashakti, the great power; she is very popular in
Nepal. She is also known as Mahamayuri, the queen of magic arts
and the chief of the female protector deities. She is
worshipped for longevity of life. Tara (Tib. Dolma) is
worshipped for her assistance in aiding the believer to overcome
obstacles on the path to enlightenment. She is found in a
variety of forms (twenty one are represented), with the most
popular being the White Tara or Sveta Tara and Green Tara or
Harit Tara. White Tara and Green Tara can be distinguished by
their symbols. The symbol of White Tara is a full blown lotus
while that of Green Tara is a water lily (utpala) with petals
closed. The former represents day and the latter represents
night. This Bodhisattva is also closely linked to
Avalokiteshvara; she was born from one of his compassionate
tears. Tara’s great popularity, which developed early in
western Tibet, coincides with the growth of Tantric worship,
which had particular influence on later Buddhism. Inscriptions
and various textual references to Tara indicate the broadest
range of responsibilities, including overcoming ghosts and
demons, curing diseases and conquering all obstacles. She is
the manifestation of wisdom and as the embodiment of prajna, or
insight she is praised by the highest Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
and worshipped by lamas and laymen.
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White Tara (Sveta Tara)
is
the incarnation of Bhrikuti Devi or Tritsun, princess of Nepal and
wife of the Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo. She is regarded as companion
of
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. She is closely related to the Dalai
Lama who is also regarded as an incarnation of
Avalokiteshvara. She is
generally portrayed as seated, dressed and crowned like a Bodhisattva
with an extra eye on the forehead. Her right hand is in
Varada Mudra
(Boon Granting Gesture) and sometimes in
Abhaya Mudra (Protection Gesture)
with a full blown
lotus at one or both shoulders. Her left hand is in
Jnana Mudra (Teaching Gesture) or holding the stem of a
lotus. Her right
leg is sometimes hanging down supported by a lotus, this is also known
as lalita asana. She is often depicted in a standing or half dancing
pose. White Tara has seven eyes. An eye of knowledge is found on her
forehead while the remaining ones are the usual eyes on the face and on
one on each of the palms of her hands and soles of her feet.
Green Tara (Harit Tara)
also known as Arya Tara in Nepal is considered the consort of
Amoghasiddhi. In sculpture she is portrayed in the same form as White
Tara but she has a water lily (utpala). She is a Buddhashakti and is
regarded as a protector. She is often depicted as slender and graceful.
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Blue or Ugra Tara (Khadga Yogini or Vajrayogini) is a dreadful manifestation of Tara and has a
ferocious form. She was overpowered by
Padmasambhava. She
typically wears a five-skull crown. These five skulls symbolize
the first five perfections attainable on the Vajrayana path
which are: generosity, discipline, patience, effort and
meditative Concentration. She has three eyes, symbolizing her
ability to see past, present and future simultaneously. In her
left hand, she holds a skull cup filled with swirling brains and
entails of the enemies of the Dharma and in her right hand is
the kartri, a curved flaying knife, the instrument used to
annihilate these enemies. She wears a garland of 50 human
skulls. She is adorned with six kinds of ornaments, as is
usually the case with tantric divinities symbolizing their
perfection in the six paramitas. Vajrayogini helps those with
strong passion to transform it into the realization of great
bliss. Vajrayogini, Vajravarahi or Bijeshvari Devi ranks first
and most important among the dakini. She is a Vajrayana
Buddhist mediation deity and as such she is considered the
female Buddha. Vajrayogini is a key figure in the advanced
Tibetan Buddhist practice of Chöd where she appears in her
Kalika or Vajravarahi forms.
Bhrikuti Tara (Yellow Tara) is affiliated to the Dhyani Buddha, Amitabha. She
is typically either in a standing or sitting pose, one faced and
three eyed. In painting she is yellow in color. One of her
hands is usually in the boon granting gesture while the other
holds a Buddhist rosary also known as malas, a vase and a triple
staff. She wears a crown on which a figure of Amitabha is
carved. |
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Red Tara (Kurukulla)
the passionate lotus dakini,
originated from the country of
Uddiyana. She is said to have emanated from the Buddha Amitabha.
Among Amitabha's three female emanations Kurukulla is the most
important one. Kurukulla is often called Red Tara (sgrol-ma
dmar-po) or Tarodbhava Kurukulla, "the Kurukulla who arises from
Tara." According to the
texts, Kurukulla is a sixteen year old maiden because sixteen is
an auspicious number which signifies perfection (four times
four). She is red in color because of her magical function of
enchantment and magnetism.
She has a single face because she embodies non-dual wisdom
beyond conventional distinctions of good and evil. She is naked
because she is unconditioned by discursive thoughts. She has
four arms because of the four immeasurable states of mind,
namely, love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. She holds an
arrow stretched on a bow entwined with flowers and leaves
because she can give rise to thoughts of desire in the minds of
others. In her other two hands she holds the hook that attracts
and summons them into her presence and the noose by which she
binds them to her will. Both of these implements enable her to
catch those of us who have strayed from the path of the Dharma.
Kurukulla wears
a crown of five skulls signifying the five perfections, whereas
she herself embodies the sixth perfection, that of wisdom. She
wears a necklace of fifty freshly severed human heads dripping
blood because she vanquishes the fifty negative emotions. She
is dancing because she is active and energetic, her
compassionate activity manifesting in both Samsara and Nirvana.
She dances, treading upon a male human corpse because she
enchants and subjugates the demon of ego and desire also known
as Kamadeva. She stands within a flaming aura because her
nature is hot and enflamed with passion and upon a lotus blossom
because she is a pure vision of enlightened awareness. In the
practitioner's meditation, such is the recollection of the
purity (dag dran) of the vision of the goddess.
Usually she is one faced but can have 2, 4, 6 or 8 arms. In the
6 armed form she has six Dhyani Buddhas engraved on her crown;
in the 2 armed form she is known as Sukla Kurkulla; in the 4
armed form she is known as Oddiyana Kurkulla and by several
other names. Her mantra is ‘Om Kukulle Hum Hrih Svaha’.
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