The view that the divine bodhisattva known by the name Tara has assimilated to her, the various characteristics and qualities of goddesses of the Himalayan regions from tribal snake deities to the great Shakti of Hinduism and even other goddesses from farther a-field is not a novel one.
Whether this is due to the somewhat outmoded idea of the archetype, or due to cultural drift and diffusion, or to people's general inability to keep specific details in mind is not really important. What is significant and valuable is the profound devotion the Tibetan people have for Tara and the genuine efficacy of her practice. In times of great difficulty, millions of people call upon 'Great Noble Tara'.
Stephen Beyer, in The Cult of Tara, reported that until even experienced Tibetan artists were shown the details of the 21 Taras as depicted in illustrated foreign texts, they often did not know or could not recall which colours, gestures and symbolic items belonged together. Also there seem to be waves of popularity for different lineage teachings of her practice, some claiming origin with one or another famous teacher of the past and others none at all. That is, some versions of her ritual worship [Skt.: sadhana] or practice are regarded as termas - tantric texts revealed or uncovered by gifted individuals under extraordinary circumstances.
When her cult developed exactly is unknown. The Chinese pilgrim Hsuan Tsang who visited the north Indian region between 633 and 645 reports without describing, a Tolo image in a temple near Nalanda Buddhist University to which the general population was particularly devoted.
The Sanskrit root tar- means "to cross [over]" meaning that this deity serves as a bridge. But it also can mean "tree," "particularly," and is also related to "star" and "pupil of the eye." Shri Tara Devi is, to Hindus, the second of ten Mahavidyas according to a Hindu tantra that associates her to the Tibetan Buddhist Tara tradition.
In Tibetan, she is called Dolma or Do'ma, though often we see Drolma because it follows the Tibetan spelling (a little more - if we transliterate, it is actually sgrolma).
Often people say that White Tara and Green Tara (the two most distinctly different and popular forms of her) derive from Tritseun, (a.k.a. Birkuti) the Nepali wife and Wen-ch'eng, the Chinese wife, of Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo ( c. 617 - 650 CE,) though opinions differ as to which queen is which Tara.
Beyer, who explored the works of scholars such as Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Snellgrove and Lessing, agrees that to pair Green Tara, because she has a dark complexion with the noblewoman from Nepal is ignorant, if not a case of bigoted 'ethnological expectation'.
One of her most widely diffused tantric manuals is known as Tara of the Acacia Grove, ie. the Khadira Forest, and also, Nepal is well known for its dark green rain forest. These facts lend support for those who think that Green Tara must represent the Nepalese woman. However, Nepal is also the direction from which reading and writing, not to mention the dharma itself, came - attributes more of White Tara. This opinion, that the Nepali woman is the model for White Tara is the view of Waddell and of Grundwedel.
Buton [Buston], the great Tibetan authority does not mention the 'wives idea' at all; Kunga Dorje, author of the Red Annals says rather that the Chinese wife was an incarnation of Tara (non-specific) but that the Nepalese goddess Bhirkuti assumed the form of the other.
Green Tara is typically pictured as a dark green-skinned girl of 16. She wears striped leggings, but only her shoulders are covered above. She wears the many characteristic ornaments of the samboghakaya.
Green Tara has her right foot extended as if about to rise. Her left hand, in the gesture of granting refuge holds the stem of a blue water lily or utpala that waves over her left shoulder while her right hand also holding a flower, offers that which we desire, a boon.
Both hands signal with blue utpala flowers,
"Samsaric beings! Cling not to worldly pleasures.
Enter the great city of liberation!"
Flower-goads prodding us to effort. Homage to you!
~ First Dalai Lama (1391-1474)
The practice of Green Tara helps to overcome fear and anxiety, but devotees believe that she can grant wishes, eliminate suffering of all kinds and bring happiness.
When called upon she instantaneously saves us from eight specific calamities. The First Dalai Lama lists and interprets them as representations of obscurations or defects:
1) lions and pride
2) wild elephants and delusions
3) forest fires and hatred
4) snakes and envy
5) robbers and fanatical views
6) prisons and avarice
7) floods and lust
8) demons and doubt
It is said that, despite his having taken a vow before Amitabha Buddha to enable everyone without exception achieve liberation from the endless round of rebirth, Chenrezi became so discouraged at the untold numbers of sentient beings that he began to cry. From his tear was formed Tara.
In the words of Nargarjuna: " Compassionate One who saves from samsara! Goddess born of the tears of the Lotus-bearer, by the power of the vow of Amitabha; most loving one who strives for the benefit of others ... I cannot describe your infinite virtues ... ."
The 21 Praises to Tara says 'On the face of Chenrezi, she is born from a tear as a bud from a lotus' or ' born from the opening corolla of the lotus face of the Lord of the triple world.
A different account is that, while Chenrezig emerged from one of the eyes of compassionate Buddha Amitabha, Tara came from the other. In her iconography, the association with the red Buddha, Amitabha, is indicated by a tiny image of him in her topknot.
She is distinguished by "her body ... white, as an autumn moon; clear as a stainless crystal gem, radiating light. She has one face, two hands, three eyes. She is described in manuals as having "the youth of 16 years" but is often depicted as more full-bodied than Green Tara. Her right hand makes the gift-bestowing gesture, and with the thumb and ring finger of her left hand she holds a branch of white utpala, its petals on the level of her ear.
There are three flowers in various stages of growth symbolizing the three times (past, present and future.) The first bloom that is in seed, usually on the right, stands for Buddha Kashyapa who lived in a past eon; the second in first bloom stands for the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, whose activity has brought you here today, and the bud on the left symbolizes future buddhas - the expected one is Maitreya Buddha.
Her hair is dark blue, bound up at the back of her neck at the back with long tresses hanging down; her breasts are full; she is adorned with divers precious ornaments, her blouse is of vari-colored silk, and her robes are of red silk, the palms of her hand and the soles of her feet each have an eye, making up the seven eyes of knowledge; she sits straight and firm upon the circle of the moon, her legs crossed in the diamond posture."
[This description (Beyer 379) from the beginning of her sadhana is included as characteristic of the details in texts used as a basis for tantric visualizations. We remind the reader that in fact the practitioner is not worshipping a goddess in these practices since the image is his or her own self imagined as a deity.]
White Tara is referred to as "Mother of all the Buddhas." This is
because she embodies the motivation that is compassion. Her
whiteness "Radiant as the eternal snows in all their glory" is indicative
of the selflessness - the purity - of this compassion but especially the
undifferentiated Truth of the Dharma.
Her seven eyes stand for her
perception of suffering that is apparent (the two we normally have) that
is psychological/spiritual (the one in her forehead) and that is inherent
in activity (in her palms) and in what is usually considered as progress
(in her soles.)
The mantra for White Tara is
OM TARE TUTARE TURE MAMA AYUR PUNYE JNANA PUSHTIM KURU
SWAHA
(Ohm, Tahray Totahray tooray mahmah ahyoor poonyay jnyana
pushtim kuru[-ye ], Swahhah)
Tibetans
say: OM TARE TUTTARE TURE, MAMA AYUR JANA PUNTIN
KURU SOHA
Link to
a sadhana for
White Tara in English via Lama Zopa and the FPMT for which no
empowerment is required, though it is always beneficial to get an
empowerment. White Tara is here, an emanation of Amitayus
(Tsepameh), the longevity aspect of Amitabha.
Tara
tangkas at Exotic India Art
site:
Green Tara on black ground with gold and white: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/buddha/ze41.jpg
Green Tara surrounded by 21 Taras in their various colours: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/buddha/ze32.jpgGreen Tara on an island in a lake with layers of pink and mauve clouds: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/buddha/ze24.jpg
Unusual turquoise-Green Tara/Birkuti seated at base of stupa with batik elements including stylized animals of the buddha families: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/buddha/ze44.jpg
A delicate bluish-White Tara, gold and pastel with an art-deco feel surmounted by yab-yum Vajrasattva and a wrathful form below: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/buddha/ze63.jpg
A pinkish-White Tara with impressive dragon to her right and Chenresi to her left, surmounted by three buddhas, two below: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/buddha/ze36.jpg
White Tara brass rupa: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/brass/zf89.jpg
The First Dalai Lama quotations are from Nitin's Nov. 2000 Tara article. The directory of newsletters is at Exotic India Art newsletter.
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The Tara cult assimilates many forms into one: The Supreme Tantra of Tara the Yogini: Source for All Rituals says in referring to aspects of the visualization: "By a green wheel, one is protected; one cheats death with a white one." The wheel in this case serves as a metonymy for the activity of one single deity.
Buddhaguyha says that Tara's green colour is the result of the mixing of white, yellow and blue standing for pacifying, increasing and destroying respectively. So that Green Tara practice includes that of White Tara and of all the others including that of golden Vasundhara - goddess of wealth.
Depending upon how the initial letter is pronounced in the Indian languages, the name of Yellow Tara is variously transliterated Basundhara {Tib.: Norgyun, Norgyuma) Vasundhara, Yasundhara; Basudarini is a variant emphasizing her femininity, ie. Norguuma in Tibetan. Vasudhara is the consort of Vaisharavana (considered the same as Kubera or Jambhala).
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE PUSHTIM KURU OM is a version of her mantra according to one source.
She is related to Hindu great goddess Lakshmi, and her Sanskrit name Vasundhara indicates she is source of the eight 'bountiful Vasus'- therefore according to the epic Mahabharat, she is the bounty that is the waters of the river Ganges - the goddess, Ganga whose origin is the snows of the Himalayas. (The Vasus are the attendants of Indra at the time of creation of the physical universe according to the Rig Veda, possibly the oldest hymn of the pre-Hindu [or Buddhist] culture.)
bronze rupa of Yellow
Tara referred to here as 'Bhirkuti'
Dolma
Sermo (Yellow
Tara) from a series of the 21 Taras.
The Sanskrit text Sadhanamala (no. 97, p. 200) refers to Yellow Tara as Vajra Tara. In the ritual composed by Mahapandit Sthavira Dharmakaramatipada the essence mantra reveals her as a true form of Tara: Om tare tuttare ture svaha.
Her dharani which mentions her as an emanation of the Great Compassionate One, Chenresi goes:
Nama aryavalokiteshvaraya bodhisattvaya mahasattvaya mahakarunikaya tadyatha:
Om tare tuttare ture, sarva dusta pradustan mama krte jambhaya sthambhaya mohaya bandhaya hum hum hum p'hat p'hat p'hat sarva dusta stambhani tare, svaha.~ Min Bahadur shakya, Nagarjuna Institute
"Seated in lalitasana on a double lotus throne, with her right foot resting on a small lotus flower, Vasudhara wears a dhoti engraved with a pattern of cat-foot prints and double moving engraved lines. She is elaborately adorned with two necklaces, earrings, bracelets, anklets, armlets and ornaments. Her hair is arranged into two buns on either side of an exquisitely rendered three-leaved tiara, with a large central diadem. Her lower right hand is in the posture of varada mudra, the gesture of charity. Her upper right hand makes the gesture of adorning the Buddha while her other is holding a sheaf of grain. Her left hands hold the auspicious water pot (the kalasa, the holy vase containing the amrita, the elixir of immortality,) a sheaf of grain and a pustaka, the book which emphasizes her identity with transcendental wisdom. The mudras and attributes signify her role as dispenser of wealth and agent of fecundity."
~ comments from Marcel Nies on the Asian Arts site.
Om, Shri Vasudhara ratna nidhana kashetri, swaha is the mantra associated with this particular form of Tara.
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The Tara cult de-similates forms into a variety, too.
'Some have a vision of you (Tara) as red as the sun with rays
more brilliant and red than lac and vermilion. Others see
you blue like the sapphire. Some again see you whiter than the
milk churned out of the milky ocean. Still others see you golden.
Your vishva-rupa is like a crystal which changes its color with
the change of the things around it.'
~ Arya Tara Shragdhara stotra [Nitin's newsletter, Nov. 2000)
For example, Red Tara or Kurukulla is the deity whose primary activity is subjugation.
the link above can take you to 4 different
images of Kurukulle at Padmasambhava.org
There is a blue Tara - in the form of a She-wolf usually depicted with her head turned towards her tail. The mantra associated with this practice, like some few others, is considered especially powerful and, according to the Venerable Kamtrul Rinpoche presents real danger to those unequipped to handle it.
In a woven-thread ritual, some of the colors for Tara (who is to be thought of as holding a flask, ie. basically Yellow Tara) that have not already been mentioned are orange, reddish black and black.
Link to
the Maitreya site with the epithets of
the 21 Taras and their colors.
Also, there are a multitude of Tara rituals: to 'bind thieves', to protect against slander, and to heal via her mantra and seed-syllable [Skt.: bhija] TAM. Beyer has in his book, an image of Tara who protects against yak-goring.
Jeff Watt at Himalayanart.org:
"From the tantra known as the ‘Twenty-One Praises of Tara’ spoken by the buddha Samantabhadra arises a system of practice with 21 emanations of Tara - 1 for each verse of the praise. Each form of Tara has a specific colour and accomplishes a specific activity. Based on that, there are 3 well known and distinct lineages: Pandita Suryagupta, Lord Atisha and the lineage from the Nyingma Lama - Longchenpa. The 3 lineages do not
share the same iconographic forms. In the Atisha system all the Taras appear in the same basic posture and only differ with the colour of the body. Aside from these 3 there are other less well known sets of 21 Taras."
Orange Tara
Link to
one of a series
from Atisha's 21 Taras.
As The Liberator, she is believed to be able to free prisoners and those confined in other ways. This extends to her efficacy in helping with childbirth.
Tara's practice is also used in the making of special medicinal pills, thread-cross mandalas [in other cultures known as God's eyes] and other woven mandalas already mentioned that are charms to be carried on the person. The writings of the great Nagarjuna include the formula for the preparation of a protective Tara mandala to be inscribed on bark.
Images of Tara are sometimes reported to manifest mysteriously on bone and in stone, among other substances. Without color, Green Tara is distinguishable from White Tara in that she has two arms, and her right foot is advanced as if she were about to rise from her seat.
There exist two different scholarly Tibetan traditions as to which teacher was first responsible for introducing her practice. Evidence is strong that in the tenjur of Tibetan king Trisong Deutsen (reigned 755-797) there were only 3 works concerning Tara, but they were not translated for general use. These were: the incantations called Mother of Avalokiteshvara and 108 Names of the Goddess Tara, and Chandragomin's "Praises of the Noble Tara Who Saves From all Great Terrors".
It is generally agreed that it was not until Atisha arrived in Tibet in 1042 that her cult was introduced. He claimed that it was Tara who prophesied that his life would be shortened by his going to Tibet, but that he would, by undertaking that duty to the dharma, greatly benefit beings and one devotee in particular. That person was Dromton [or bromton] who built a temple to Tara that was standing at Nyetang at least until the late 1970's.
Of Atisha's 117 works, only 4 are about Tara. Also, of the 77 Indian works he translated, only 6 are about her. It is noteworthy that, according to Beyer, all of the White Tara lineages derive from his translation of 3 of Vagishvarakirti's works in the larger cycle known as 'Cheating Death.' The White Tara tradition stems from that writer's own revelations and not from the tantric tradition said to have originated with the Buddha.
The orthodox Buddhist tantric tradition was not deemed appropriate for general dissemination in the 11th century which was a time of reform. It took another 400 years it to be revived, or at least, widely disseminated which it was under Taranatha (fl. 1600) according to the Tibetan historian, Zhunnupe.
The 21 Praises to Tara, though, were brought from India in the 11th century by Darmadra of Nyen, according to Drugpa Jetsen, abbot of the Sakya monastery who wrote a commentary a century later. He, himself, wrote 13 works on Tara.
All denominations will call upon Green Tara in times of necessity. According to Beyer whose informants were Drugpa Kagyu, the Kagyu consider there is a special relationship with White Tara via Gampopa (fl. 1100.) The superior, contemporary tantric master Ven. Tenga Rinpoche maintains that lineage. But Kagyu temples everywhere begin the day with the four-mandala offering to Green Tara.
Taranatha (b. 1575) was, besides a noted philosopher and scholar, also a Tara devotee as we see from his name. In Origin of the Tara Sadhana, he tells how
A twelve-year-old girl was gathering flowers in the forest, when Kuni, a fierce elephant, confronted her. He seized her in his trunk and threatened to crush her. Remembering Tara's name, the girl called upon her for help, and Tara at once restrained the elephant. The elephant placed the girl on a stone outcropping and saluted her with his trunk. He took her to the local town's marketplace, council chambers and temple, and then circumambulated the palace. The king heard of this girl and her stock of merit and he took her as his queen.
Once at Vajrasana, an elderly lady constructed a Tara temple in which the Tara image faced outwards. When the temple was complete, the lady grieved because the image faced away from the Mahabodhi shrine, thinking it inauspicious to do so. Suddenly the image spoke: "If you are not happy about this, then I will look on the Mahabodhi shrine." At once the image looked around, and from then on was known as 'Tara of the Turned Face'.
Taranatha reminded his readers that Tara had encouraged Nagarjuna to attain perfection, had protected Chandragomin on two occasions, and that she had told numerous others edifying tales and given assistance to many siddhas, including Tilopa and the disciples of Naropa. He refrained, however, from setting down the detailed teachings of the Tara tantra, for that belongs to the oral instruction passed from guru to chela. He nonetheless showed why a dedicated disciple should seek its eternal wisdom. ~ http://theosophy.org/tlodocs/teachers/Taranatha.htm
more
about the lineages
and varieties of Tara by 'layman Sherab'
About the Tara Mantras
Her basic mantra which may be said by all forms and by anyone is
OM! Tare Tuttare Ture, Swaha.
There are mantras that go with the various forms and these may vary according to the lineage of transmission.
The mantra that may be said for any deity conforms to the following (which is for Yellow Tara):
OM BASUDARINI [< deity's name] SOHA [<Tibetan pronunciation of swaha = be!] ]
It is the peculiarities of the Tibetan language, and hence its alphabet that causes the change, but it is not much more than a difference in regional accent, really.
RM provides an interesting simile. He says that mantras may be likened to phone numbers with their various extensions. Area codes, too, may I add. In that case, dialing style does not matter as long as you get the right number.
In a world known as Various Lights, there was a Buddha called Dundubhishvara [Lord of the Sound of Drums] and he had a devotee, a princess called Jnanachandra [Wisdom Moon.] For many ages, she made offerings to him, and to the 'hearers' and bodhisattvas, until finally there arose in her the determination to, herself, become a buddha. She was advised that she would first have to seek a rebirth in a male body, for who had ever heard of a female buddha?
"Nonsense," she thought. "What difference does the form of the body matter? In fact, to dispel this incorrect notion from the minds of certain beings, I will forever be reborn as a female!"
Those who wish to attain supreme enlightenment in a man's body are many, but those who wish to serve the aims of beings in a woman's body are few indeed; therefore may I, until this world is emptied out, serve the aims of beings with nothing but the body of a woman.
Then Wisdom Moon sat determinedly in meditation for many ages. She attained the knowledge that events do not arise, and the state called Saving All Beings. Every morning before she had taken food, she introduced and fixed innumerable beings in the state of acceptance; every evening she did the same, and so she became known as Tara the Saviour.
Reborn into the realm of Buddha Amoghasiddi in the era called Vastly Extended, Tara took another vow before him: She determined to protect the sentient beings of the infinite worlds of all ten directions from harm. She settled into the state of meditation called 'Defeating all Maras,' and during the day, fixed in contemplation innumerable heavenly rulers of beings, and in the night, also those of the heaven of power of vision over others. She became known as Tara the Swift, and Tara the Heroine.
Then, in the era called Beginningless, a monk whose name was Stainless Light was empowered via the light of compassion of all the tathagathas [buddhas] and became Avalokiteshvara (Lord of the World, called in Tibetan, Chenresi). In him, two lights emanating from all the buddhas - that of Understanding and that of Compassion, united as a father and mother. These lights, these initiatory energies, engendered Tara who was then born from the heart of the Lord of the World 'as a bud from the lotus.'
That is how Tara is understood to have come to us - out of Emptiness, but by the merit of her devotion and her determination which, manifesting as care, finds its way through the union of wisdom and compassion to all sentient beings.
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S. L., who is a medical doctor, tells us that Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche told his pregnant wife to do Tara's mantra though she had received 'neither wong, tri, or lung [various types of empowerment] for that practice'.
He recommends Bokar Rinpoche's Tara: The Feminine Divine. Others mention John Blofeld's Bodhisattva of Compassion.
Tara sadhana with the 21 Praises included, a Gelugpa liturgy.
