Green Tara

Bodhisattva — One of the principal forms of Tara, a female bodhisattva of compassion and protection widely venerated across Vajrayana Buddhism, including Nepal's Newar Buddhist tradition.

Tara's worship developed within Indian Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism by around the 6th century CE and spread widely through Tibet, the Himalayas and East Asia. According to a well-known account, Tara arose from a tear of Avalokiteshvara as he wept at the suffering of beings — underscoring her intimate association with the bodhisattva of compassion.

In Tibetan Buddhism, Tara is honored through the Praise to the Twenty-One Taras, a text of central importance in Tara devotional practice, and she features prominently in tantric ritual and meditation across the Vajrayana schools that took root in Tibet from the 7th–8th centuries CE onward.

Tara is understood as embodying the swift, active dimension of compassion: where Avalokiteshvara represents compassion in its vast, universal aspect, Tara represents compassion put immediately into action to relieve suffering and fear. Her name is traditionally associated with a Sanskrit root meaning "to cross" or "to save," evoking the image of one who ferries beings across the ocean of suffering (samsara).

As a female buddha or bodhisattva in her own right within Vajrayana cosmology, Tara holds particular significance as a full expression of enlightenment in female form — a point emphasized in her own origin legends, in which she vows to attain buddhahood and continue working for beings specifically in a woman's body.

• Compassion
• Protection

1. The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism — L. Austine Waddell, W. H. Allen & Co. (1895) · Link

   Public domain. Consulted for Tara's iconography and role within Tibetan Vajrayana practice.

2. Praise to the Twenty-One Taras — Traditional

   Central Tara devotional text (the "Homage to Tara in Twenty-One Verses").

Posture

Typically seated in a relaxed posture (lalitasana), right leg extended with the foot resting on a small lotus, signifying readiness to rise and act.

Mudras / gestures

Right hand in varada mudra (boon-granting); left hand holds the stem of a blue or white lotus (utpala) at the level of the heart.

Colours

Green — her defining color, associated with active, all-accomplishing compassion

Attributes

Blue or white lotus (utpala), Jeweled crown and ornaments

Crowns & ornaments

A five-pointed crown and elaborate jeweled ornaments typical of Sambhogakaya (enjoyment-body) Buddhist iconography, reflecting her status as an enlightened being appearing in resplendent bodhisattva form.

Green Tara's half-lotus seated posture, with one leg extended, is read as combining meditative stillness with readiness for immediate, compassionate action. Her green color is traditionally associated with "all-accomplishing" enlightened activity, distinguishing her from the more contemplative White Tara, whose color and posture emphasize longevity and healing.

The lotus Tara holds represents purity and enlightenment arising undefiled from the midst of samsaric existence, echoing the common Buddhist symbolism of the lotus growing from muddy water.

Tara is invoked in daily prayer, in dedicated Tara pujas, and through recitation of the Twenty-One Praises to Tara, performed both individually and in group ritual settings across Tibetan and Newar Vajrayana communities.

Tara is widely venerated in Nepal's Newar Buddhist communities of the Kathmandu Valley, where her worship intersects with both Vajrayana and broader Mahayana devotional practice, and she is honored at numerous Kathmandu Valley monasteries (gumba) and shrines alongside other major bodhisattvas.

This Nepal-specific context reflects general and contemporary knowledge of Kathmandu Valley Buddhist practice, distinct from the classical textual sources cited below, and is an introductory overview pending more detailed, source-verified expansion.

• Swayambhunath

Tara is a frequent subject of Tibetan and Newar thangka painting and gilt-copper repoussé sculpture, with the Kathmandu Valley's Newar artisan tradition particularly renowned for elaborate gilt bronze images of Tara and other Vajrayana deities, continuing a lineage of metalworking that has supplied Buddhist art across the Himalayan region for centuries.

Tara remains one of the most extensively studied female figures in Buddhist studies, examined for her devotional significance, her role in the history of women in Buddhist practice, and the artistic traditions she has inspired across Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia and beyond.

1. Tara (Buddhism) · Link

   General overview consulted for contemporary framing.