Red Tara (Tib: drol ma, “Saviouress”) from the group of Twenty-one Taras as transmitted by Jowo Atisha. At the top centre is Amitabha Buddha, red in colour; directly below stands Atisha in the garb of a Buddhist monk. The lower-left corner shows the wealth deity Vaishravana riding a lion; the lower-right shows Shri Devi Magzor Gyalmo riding a mule. In the Atisha system — the most widespread of the five Twenty-one Tara cycles in Tibetan Buddhism — each Tara shares the same single face and two arms in a seated posture, distinguished only by body colour, with the right hand outstretched holding a vase of matching hue. This is among the finest known examples of the late-style painting of the Twenty-one Tara subject.
