In this rare composition, two Buddhist savioresses are seated on lotus thrones rising from pools set in a mountainous backdrop. White Tara, marked by the multiple eyes of omniscience, sits in meditation posture; Green Tara hangs one leg pendant. Both lower one hand in the boon-giving varada mudra.
The two wives of Songtsen Gampo, first king of Tibet, were understood to be emanations of Tara — the Nepalese princess identified with White Tara, the Chinese princess with Green Tara. Songtsen Gampo himself is accepted as a manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, so the bodhisattva and the two Taras depicted here evoke the historical figures credited with establishing Buddhism in Tibet. A Kashmiri influence is detectable in the Guge school style — visible in the slender-waisted female figures and their distinctive attire.
