21 Manifestations of Tara

JigmeSep 02, 20247 min readUpdated Aug 02, 2026

Contents

I. Five Separate Traditions
II. The Twenty-One Taras of the Suryagupta Tradition
References

The practice of the twenty-one Taras has its source in the Tantra of the Twenty-One Praises to Tara (Skt. Namastaraikavimshatistotra; Tib. Sgrol ma la phyag ’tshal nyi shu rtsa gcig gis bstod pa phan yon dang bcas pa). By tradition this sacred tantra was revealed by Samantabhadra himself, each verse of praise answering to one emanation of Tara, with her own colour and her own activity. Springing from a single root, the twenty-one Taras nonetheless grew, as the transmission passed down into Tibet, into five separate and independent systems. These five branches no longer agree on the forms of the deities, and in that divergence lies much of the variety and singularity of Tibetan art.

Green Tara (three-deity configuration), Guge style, Western Tibet — A *thangka* of Green Tara in a three-deity composition, in the Guge style of western Tibet. Green Tara is enthroned at the centre in the posture of “relaxed play” (*lalitasana*), her palms touched with red — the mark of the “red hand” style — with an attendant to either side.

Five Separate Traditions

Green Tara surrounded by the Twenty-one Taras (Suryagupta tradition), Tibet, 14th century — A *thangka* of Green Tara surrounded by the twenty-one Taras of the Suryagupta tradition. Above the three central deities are the eight Taras who deliver from the eight great perils. From the collection of Anna Maria Rossi & Fabio Rossi.

Of the five, the Suryagupta tradition (Tib. Ni ma sbas) is acknowledged as the oldest, and the most intricate in its iconography. According to the history written by the great master Taranatha of the Jonang lineage, Suryagupta was an accomplished scholar-adept from Kashmir, a contemporary of such seventh- and eighth-century Indian masters as Chandrakirti and Chandragomin. In Kashmir and in Magadha he founded twelve Buddhist monasteries, commanding the yaksha spirits (yaksha) to furnish the building materials and to guard practitioners from the “eight great fears”. Having received the Tara empowerment from the master Nagamitra, he became renowned as one who had realised the 108 Tara tantras, and left thirteen canonical works on the practice in the Tengyur before passing the transmission to his chief disciple Sarvajnamitra.

What distinguishes the Suryagupta tradition is the difference between its emanations: each of the twenty-one Taras has her own face, her own colour, her own seated or standing posture, her own number of heads and arms, and wholly distinct gestures and implements. Each is therefore commonly given a thangka of her own, and this is likewise the basis of the Green Tara sadhana practised in the Drukpa lineage today.

ཨོཾ་རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏཱ་རེ་མྱུར་མ་དཔའ་མོ།
།ཏུཏྟཱ་ར་ཡིས་འཇིགས་པ་སེལ་མ། །
ཏུ་རེས་དོན་ཀུན་སྦྱིན་པས་ སྒྲོལ་མ།
།སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ཡི་གེ་ཁྱོད་ལ་འདུད་དོ། །
OM — Homage to the noble lady Tara!
Homage to Tara, swift and valiant,
whose eyes flash like lightning;
with TUTTARE, mighty in strength,
she dispels every fear;
with TURE, sovereign in meaning,
she grants all that is wished for;
and with the two syllables SOHA
I bow down and offer praise.
Nghi quỹ tu trì Lục Độ Phật Mẫu, translated by Drukpa Vietnam

Red Tara from the Twenty-one Taras (Atisha tradition), Tibet, 19th century — The painting shows the twenty-one Taras of the Jowo Atisha tradition, with Red Tara at the centre. At the top is the red *buddha* Amitabha, and directly below him the master Atisha in monastic robes. In the lower left corner is the wealth deity Vaishravana riding a lion; in the lower right, Shri Devi Magzor Gyalmo riding a mule. In the Atisha tradition all twenty-one Taras share one face, two arms and a seated posture, and are distinguished only by the colour of the body; the right hand is extended, holding a vase of the same colour. This is among the finest late works known on the subject of the twenty-one Taras.

Against the intricacy of Suryagupta, the Atisha system is highly standardised: all twenty-one Taras share one basic composition — one face, two arms, seated in the posture of “relaxed play” (lalitasana) — and differ only in colour. Characteristically, each Tara of the Atisha lineage holds a vase of amrita resting upon her upturned right palm, and that vase is always the colour of her body. Peaceful though they appear, some in the Atisha tradition are described with a “half-wrathful” aspect, shown in slightly knitted brows or a fang bared at the corner of the mouth, to subdue obstructing forces. This is the most widespread and most frequently encountered tradition in the history of Tibetan art, and particularly so in the Gelug lineage.

Closely bound up with Atisha is the Sadhana-samucchaya system, a lineage arising from the collection of tantric sadhanas of that name. As the texts describe them, the Taras of this system look very much like those of the Atisha tradition. In practice, however, scholars identify the Sadhana-samucchaya branch by elimination. Old paintings showing Tara surrounded by her twenty-one emanations are assigned to this branch if, and only if, the deities do not match the many-faced, many-armed Suryagupta system, do not hold the vase of amrita in the right hand as in the Atisha system, and do not set an implement upon a lotus at the left shoulder as in the Nyingma lineages. Works of this tradition are, for that reason, exceedingly rare.

The remaining two branches represent the treasure (terma) transmission of the Nyingma: the Longchen Nyingtig system and the Chogyur Lingpa system, revealed about a century apart. The Longchen Nyingtig system propagated by Jigme Lingpa is close to Atisha in composition — each deity has one face, two arms, and the right leg extended slightly forward. What sets Longchen Nyingtig apart is that the left hand holds a lotus in full bloom at shoulder height, and above the lotus sits the emblem particular to each Tara. Continuing this current, Chogyur Lingpa gave rise to the fifth system.

The Chogyur Lingpa lineage is very close to Longchen Nyingtig, except that it raises Green Tara to be the central deity and places her first in the list of twenty-one. In that position she bears the name “Chogling Tara Who Dispels All Fear”. The deities of the Chogyur Lingpa lineage appear chiefly on empowerment miniatures (tsakali). In these two Nyingma lineages it is exceedingly rare for all twenty-one Taras to appear together on a single thangka.

For accurate veneration and visualisation, the practitioner should hold in mind the following points of iconography. The first is a paradox of colour. Although green is regarded as Tara’s original colour when she appears alone, or with her two attendants Marichi and Ekajati, green is altogether absent from the Atisha system. The Atisha tradition prescribes its scheme of colour strictly: four Taras red, six white, three yellow, four orange, two dark red and two black.

Next, the form of Wish-Fulfilling Wheel White Tara, Chintachakra Tara, and the “Tara who delivers from the eight great perils” (fire, water, thieves, venomous snakes and the rest) belong to separate systems of practice and transmission, originating with different Indian and Tibetan masters, and stand wholly apart from the five systems of the twenty-one Taras described above.

Green Tara with the Twenty-one Taras (Atisha tradition), Tibet, 19th century — A *thangka* of Green Tara together with the twenty-one Taras of the Atisha tradition in a single composition. Green Tara is shown with a golden body, enthroned in the pure land of Khadiravana. The work belongs to the Sakya lineage and ranks among the masterpieces on the subject of Tara.

Twenty-one Taras (Suryagupta tradition), Tibet, 19th century — A painting of the twenty-one Taras of the Suryagupta tradition. Green Tara is enthroned at the centre, surrounded by twenty emanations, each with her own colour, gesture and implement, to guard the practitioner through every fear and adversity.

The Twenty-One Taras of the Suryagupta Tradition

Curated and synthesised by
Jigme

References

Beer, Robert. “Twenty-One Taras (Suryagupta Tradition)”. Tibetan Buddhist and Newar Tantric Art. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://www.tibetanart.com/Product.asp?PID=10
The Gyalwang Drukpa. Nghi quỹ tu trì Lục Độ Phật Mẫu, Ý Nghĩa và Hướng Dẫn Thực Hành. Hà Nội: NXB Tôn Giáo, 2021.
Watt, Jeff. 2007. “Twenty-one Taras”. Himalayan Art Resources. Updated May 2017. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=2749

21 Manifestations of Tara

Five Separate Traditions

The Twenty-One Taras of the Suryagupta Tradition

References

Comments.

Related essays.

Paripurana Tara, the Perfecter [21/21]

Siddhisambhava Tara, Source of Attainments [20/21]

Duhkhadahana Tara, Consumer of Suffering [19/21]