Buddhist Deity: Tara (Atisha Tradition, History & List)
Tara (Atisha Tradition)
History of the Instruction [& List of the Twenty-One Taras]:Shortly before the great Jowo (Atiśa) came to Tibet, he was circumambulating at Vajrāsana (Bodhgayā) and prayed to the Jetsunma. She appeared to him directly and said: "Go to Tibet. There will be great benefit to the teachings and to beings. Make this your heart practice: the method of accomplishing pacifying, increasing, magnetizing and wrathful activities through twenty-one sādhanas based on this Praise in Twenty-One Homages. Obstacles will not arise, and all favourable conditions will come about."
So the Jetsunma granted it to him in person. After arriving in Tibet he made it his main heart practice and gave it to disciples such as Dromtön Gyalwai Jungné, and from them it has been handed down in succession.
The Central Deity:
The deity may be generated through the three rituals, but the Indian text does it by instantaneous recollection, so it is done as follows.
In the centre, oneself is Khadiravaṇī Tārā, green-blue in colour, with one face and two arms. Her right hand is in the boon-granting gesture. Her left, in the gesture symbolising the Three Jewels, holds the stem of an utpala at her heart, its open bloom beside her ear. She has the splendour of a sixteen-year-old, with full breasts, peaceful, smiling and graceful. Her dark blue hair is half bound up and the rest falls loose over her upper body.
She is adorned with a jewel crown, earrings and all kinds of jewel ornaments, and wears upper and lower garments of fine silk. On a lotus and moon seat, her right leg is slightly extended and her left drawn in, in the posture of royal ease.
The Twenty-one Tārās:
In the same way, on the twenty-one seats, meditate on the twenty-one goddesses who accomplish the four activities. Starting from the east and going clockwise:
1. If the yogin wishes to pacify and bring under control obstructers and misleaders: on the first seat, the Jetsunma Swift and Heroic, red, one face and two arms. Her right hand in the boon-granting gesture holds in its palm a red vase of magnetizing; her left in the refuge-granting gesture holds an utpala. She is smiling and graceful, adorned with silks and all kinds of jewel ornaments, and seated on a lotus and moon in the posture of a female sattva.
2. To pacify illness, spirits and obstructers: Great Peaceful One, white like the autumn moon, one face and two arms, holding a white vase of pacifying in the palm of her boon-granting right hand. The rest is as above, and this applies to all those that follow.
3. To increase life and merit: Golden-Coloured One, holding a yellow vase of increase.
4. To increase life: Golden-Coloured One, holding a yellow vase that increases life.
5. To bring a consort or others under control: Proclaimer of HŪṂ, red-yellow, holding a vase that captivates the mind.
6. To tame elemental spirits: Victorious over the Three Worlds, red-black, holding a vase that intoxicates elemental spirits.
7. To repel others' mantras: Destroyer of Others' Power, black and slightly wrathful, holding a vase that repels mantras.
8. To destroy both māras and enemies: Destroyer of Māras and Enemies, red-black, holding a vase that destroys enemies.
9. To protect from fears: Symbol of the Three Jewels, white, holding a vase that protects from fear.
10. To bring the world under control: Destroyer of Māras and Magnetizer of the World, red, holding a vase that destroys māras and magnetizes.
11. To dispel poverty: Summoner and Dispeller of Poverty, red-yellow like refined gold, holding a vase that protects from poverty.
12. For auspiciousness: Bestower of Auspiciousness, red-yellow, holding a vase of auspiciousness.
13. To destroy enemy armies: Blazing like Fire, red, holding a vase that destroys enemies. The Sādhana of the Twenty-One Tārās, Together with the Permission Ritual
14. To strike obstructers: Frowning One, black with a slight frown, holding a vase that strikes obstructers.
15. To pacify sins: Great Peaceful One, white, holding a vase that pacifies sins.
16. To increase wisdom and win debates: Tārā Arisen from the HŪṂ of Knowledge, red, holding a vase that increases knowledge-mantras.
17. To suppress māras and obstacles: Shaker of the World, red-yellow, holding a vase that suppresses mantras.
18. To pacify the poisons of the nāgas: Pacifier and Dispeller of Poison, white, holding a vase that dispels poison.
19. To dispel disputes and bad dreams: Dispeller of Disputes and Bad Dreams, white, holding a vase that dispels these.
20. To protect from epidemics: Dispeller of Epidemics, red-yellow, holding a vase that dispels epidemics.
21. To accomplish all kinds of activity: the Jetsunma of Activity, noble Tārā, white, one face and two arms. Her right hand in the boon-granting gesture holds a vase that accomplishes all activities; her left in the refuge-granting gesture holds an utpala. She
is peaceful, smiling and graceful, adorned with silks and jewels, seated on a lotus and moon in the posture of a female sattva.
Colophon: (This sādhana of the twenty-one Jetsunmas, the heart deity of Jowo Je, together with its permission ritual, was composed at the request of some interested people, following the oral transmission of the holy lama, by the Śākya monk Drubwang Ngagrampa Gendün Tashi, at the supreme place Gyal gyi Lhazhol Thösam Ling. By this virtue, may all beings be freed from the ocean of suffering of saṃsāra. Sarvadā maṅgalam).
HAR Team, 11-2026
(The examples below are only a selection of images from the links above).
