Kanakavarna Tara, the Golden-Coloured [3/21]

༄༅། །གསེར་མདོག་ཅན་གྱི་སྒྲོལ་མ་།།
ཕྱག་འཚལ་གསེར་སྔོ་ཆུ་ནས་སྐྱེས་ཀྱི།
།པདྨོས་ཕྱག་ནི་རྣམ་པར་བརྒྱན་མ། །
སྦྱིན་པ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་དཀའ་ཐུབ་ཞི་བ།
།བཟོད་པ་བསམ་གཏན་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ཉི་མ། །

Homage to Tara, golden as fine gold,
in whose hand a wondrous lotus
is held in perfect dignity —
generosity, discipline and patience,
diligence, meditation,
and wisdom brought to fullness.

Nghi quỹ tu trì Lục Độ Phật Mẫu, Drukpa lineage

Tara “golden in colour” has one face, two eyes and ten arms — signifying the ten perfected paramita. She sits upon a golden sun disc and a lotus of many colours, robed in divine silk and adorned with jewel ornaments.

In her first pair of hands she holds a rosary and a white silk ribbon at the level of her heart. Her second pair raises the sword of wisdom and a noose. In her third pair she holds the arrow that pierces every defilement and a blue utpala lotus. In her fourth pair she holds a vajra and a bell (ghanta). Her fifth pair holds a jewel-topped club and a bow. Above her crown appears the buddha Amitabha. She has the power to prolong life, to increase the qualities of enlightenment, and to gather prosperity.

Curated and synthesised by
Jigme

References

1. 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

2. The Gyalwang Drukpa. Nghi quỹ tu trì Lục Độ Phật Mẫu, Ý Nghĩa và Hướng Dẫn Thực Hành. Hà Nội: NXB Tôn Giáo, 2021.

3. Tsem Rinpoche. “Suryagupta’s 21 Taras”. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/suryaguptas-21-taras.html