Tara, Ashtabhya (Tibetan: drol ma jig pa gye. English: Tara of the Eight Fears).

Beautiful and peaceful, with one face and two hands, the right hand is extended over the knee in the mudra (gesture) of supreme generosity. The left hand is placed at the heart with the thumb and ring finger holding the stem of a pink lotus blossom. Adorned with a tiara of gold and jewels, earrings, necklaces long and short, she wears an upper scarf blue in colour and a variously coloured lower garment. With the right leg extended and the left drawn up in a relaxed posture surrounded by an orange nimbus and red aureola she dwells within a rainbow sphere of light. Above a moon disc and multi-coloured flower blossom rising from a dark blue lotus pond she sits with the Buddha Amitabha above - seated on billowing clouds and resting the two hands in the lap while holding a begging bowl.

Descending from the top left - Tara is protecting from the fear of lions, here represented by a Tibetan snow lion. With the left hand she performs the mudra of generosity. Below is Tara holding a water vase in the right hand protecting from fire. At the middle left two monks sit on the sides of the lotus pond and receive protection from the fear of water (drowning) from the central Tara. Standing at the bottom left Tara offers protection from snakes. At the bottom center Tara protects two human figures from a ghostly spirit.

Descending from the top right - Tara protects from the fear of rampaging elephants. Below she protects travelers from the fear of thieves and robbers. At the lower right Tara protects the innocent from imprisonment by unjust rulers.

Tara is a completely enlightened buddha who had previously promised to appear, after enlightenment, in the form of a female bodhisattva, goddess-like, for the benefit of all beings. Practiced in all Schools of Tantric Buddhism her various forms are also found in all four classifications of tantra, both Nyingma and Sarma. Her 10 syllable mantra and the short tantra known as the 'Twenty-One Praises of Tara' spoken by the buddha Samantabhadra are memorized and popularly recited by all Tibetans from the time of early childhood. Her primary activity is to protect from the 8 and 16 fears. These eight - water, lions, fire, snakes, elephants, thieves, imprisonment and ghosts, are meant literally, but also have a deeper significance.

Jeff Watt 10-98