Ziche Leethong provides a concise and detailed explanation of the practice of the Five Tara Deities in Karma Kagyu tradition, find the full text below:
The Five Deities of Tara
Historically, Tara is the oldest recorded goddess in Buddhism. Culturally, in Buddhism she is the most well-known goddess. And spiritually, she is the mother of all sentient beings – born to help and liberate every being from suffering. According to the highest teachings of Vajrayana, among the five elements she is the nature of wind, and among the five enlightened wisdoms she is the all-accomplishing wisdom. And it is for all these reasons that she is well-known for performing activities swiftly and fulfilling people’s wishes in time by answering their prayers.
She is one of the five Buddha families and all mandalas of the Vajrayana belong to the five Buddhas. A practitioner of Vajrayana must receive empowerment from either from a guru or from the visualisation. It cannot be done without relying upon the five Buddha families. Therefore, for anyone who wishes to achieve enlightenment through the practice of Vajrayana, relying upon the compassion and blessing of Tara is an indispensable element of the path. Stories of Tara helping people, especially in difficult times, have continuously emerged from ancient time to our modern day.
History of Tara
There are scant sources about the origin of Tara in Buddhism. According to some sources, Tara emanated from Buddha Amitabha and therefore she resides in Buddha Amitabha’s Pure Land known as Sukhavati. According to another, particular source other sources, Tara was manifested from the tears of Avalokiteshvara. Since Avalokiteshvara is the deity of compassion and Tara was born from Avalokiteshvara’s tears when he was moved by deep compassion, Tara is considered to be even more compassionate than Avalokiteshvara. Also because Tara was manifested to assist Avalokiteshvara to benefit beings even more actively, it is said that her activities can be swifter than any other bodhisattvas.
According to some tantric texts translated by Taranatha in the 17th century, there is a famous story of Tara once being a little princess. After serving a past Buddha for many years, she finally made the wish of becoming a Buddha one day and until that she vowed to help all beings by regularly taking rebirth as a female bodhisattva. When monks mocked her for choosing what they considered was an inferior human form, she challenged their dogmatic view of grasping on gender and sex as if these actually existed on the ultimate level. From then her very purpose of existence was to liberate beings and her name became Tara, which means liberator.
In India and Nepal, she became an important female bodhisattva or a deity around the sixth centur as she is mentioned in Manjushri’s Mula Tantra which can be dated as late as that time. Since then, many Mahayana and Vajrayana masters have worshipped her as their goddess mother and there are countless stories or histories of great masters being protected, guided and assisted by Tara. Some of the most well-known are Nagarjuna, the founder of Middle Way School of Mahayana, and Chandragomi, the famous Mahayana Buddhist poet and Sanskritist.
It is said that the Chinese princess Wencheng Konzhu, who married Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo and who is credited for playing an important role in first introducing Buddhism to Tibet, was an emanation of none other than Tara herself. Later in the 11th century, the great Indian master Atisha went to Tibet when it was suffering from the conflict of Sutra and Tantra. It is said that Atisha’s visit occurred mainly because Tara herself prophesied Atisha to make this important journey. Khache Panchen Shakya Shri, another great master from Kashmir, was the last most important Indian master to visit Tibet. He too was motivated to visit Tibet after receiving a prophecy from Tara. From the nine junior Panditas who went to Tibet with him, Sakya Pandita learnt various sciences of India and since then, the complete ten sciences were first introduced to Tibet.
Different Forms of Tara
The old sources does not mention the special features of Tara such as her color or the number of faces or arms. But many believe that Green Tara, usually known as the Tara of Forest, might be the original form of Tara. In one Tantra of Tara, there is a supplication to Tara with a special twenty-one verses mentioning the various qualities and activities of Tara. Based on that, the Indian Master Surya Gupta from Kashmir introduced the practice of twenty-one different forms of Tara serving twenty-one different purposes. The forms of these twenty-one Taras each have three faces and six arms and they are considered to belong to the Anuttarayoga Tantra, the highest class among the four classes of Buddhist Tantras.
Later, when Atisha came to Tibet, he introduced another version of practicing the twenty-one Taras. In this tradition, each of these twenty-one Taras has one face and two arms and this practice is considered to belong to the Kriya Tantra, the basic class of Buddhist Tantras. Atisha’s lineage in Tibet, known as Kadhampa, had four main deities consisting of Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, Tara and Acala. The Tara is chosen for accomplishing activities. Although Tara was first introduced to Tibet as early as the eighth century, it seems Atisha played a significant role in reviving the practicing of Tara in Tibet.
Around the same time of Atisha, the practice of White Tara became well known in India. It was mainly introduced by an Indian master named Vagishvarakirti (Ngawang Drakpa) who was one of the four main scholars of Vikramashila, the ancient Vajrayana Buddhist university in India. He later went to Nepal, and it is said that he disappeared at Swayambhunath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. This White Tara, known as Wish Fulfilling Wheel, is considered as the deity of longevity, merit and wisdom and she does not belong to the group of twenty-one Taras. There is also Yellow Tara taught in the Tantra of Vajra Tent, as well as Red Tara; the main benefit of practising either was to gather positive power and influence . All of these Taras were practised in the different traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, of whom Green and White Tara are the most well-known.
The Five Deities of Tara
In the traditional history of Vajrayana, there are many great masters who are associated with Tara. Among them, perhaps the earliest one was Nagarjuna, one of the first foremost scholars of the Mahayana and founder of the Middle Way school. Although there is the lineage of the single Green Tara that came from Nagarjuna, among the many Tara practices he introduced the five deities of Tara holds particular significance in the Tibetan Buddhism. There are few different versions of this with slight differences among them.
One version was brought to Tibet by Vairochana, an Indian master from Orissa in India. He went all the way to China where a Chinese king tested him by offering mercury. He drank it without any harm but he left without accepting the disrespect. He spent the rest of his life in Tibet raising many great masters and translating some important texts. One of his important disciples was the first Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa, to whom he gave the empowerment and practice of the five deities of Tara.
According to this version, there is Green Tara at the centre of Mandala who is surrounded by four other female deities, all of whom are especially important in Vajrayana Buddhism. In the front, there is Marici or Oser Chenma, who was practised for the benefit of overcoming obstacles caused by enemies, theft or robbery. Therefore, it is said that she was widely practised by kings in India. In Japan, she was widely worshipped by samurais.
On her right side, there is Ekajati or Ralchik Ma in Tibetan, who is a wrathful female deity and who was mainly practised for developing wisdom. On her left side, there is Janguli, or Dhuksel Ma in Tibetan, benefitted practitioners to overcome the harm of poison or negative energy, both materially and spiritually. Behind Tara there is Mahamayuri or Maja Chenmo in Tibetan, who is also one of the oldest female deities of Vajrayana Buddhism. It is said that during Buddha’s time, she was practised by monks seeking protection or healing from the poison of snakes. She is also widely practised in China and Japan where Vajrayana flourished.
Each of these five female deities were taught by Buddha in independent dharanis and tantras. They are also also promoted by various masters in India. It seems perhaps they were the five most important personal female deities of Nagarjuna and he included them in a single mandala so that a practitioner could receive all their various benefits at once.
Restoration of the Five Deities of Tara
A few different masters and translators brought the five female deity of Tara to Tibet. But as time went on, only one version survived with complete transmission including the oral transmission and empowerment: the one that was transmitted by Vairochana to first Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa. Other than this, Dusum Khyenpa also had four other sets of five deities as his personal practice. These included the five deities of Chakrasamvara, the five deities of Vajrayogini, the five deities of Hevajra and the five deities of Hayagriva. Together, they are known as the five sets of personal deities of Dusum Khyenpa. Among them, Chakrasamvara and Vajrayogini are widely practiced in the Karma Kagyu lineage.
Thanks to the ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje, who included the five deities of Tara and of Hayagriva in his collection of known as Knowing All by Knowing One), the lineage of the five deities of Tara and five deities of Hayagriva survived survived until our time. And gradually, the tradition of five deities of Hevajra was lost. In his autobiography, Trijang Rinpoche, the tutor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, mentions how some elder monks of Karma Kagyu were not aware of their own lineage having such five sets of personal deities of Dusum Khyenpa. Trijang Rinpoche might have been interested in this as the lineage of the five personal deities of Dusum Khyenpa also flourished in Geluk and Sakya.
Then some years ago, after His Holiness the Karmapa restored the tradition of the puja of the five deities of Hayagriva, Khen Rinpoche Lodoe Donyoe of Mirik Bokar monastery requested His Holiness to also restore the tradition of the five deities of Tara too. Accepting this request, His Holiness intended to compose a complete text on the practice of the five deities of Tara that can be used for both personal practice and group puja. Before that, all the texts on the five deities of Tara that came from Dusum Khyenpa were far too short for a standard puja. Most pujas held at large Karma Kagyu monasteries required many important elements such as the making of offerings and chanting of praises. His Holiness composed then composed the text of the five deities of Tara by researching almost all available texts related to Tara in Tibet.
During this period, he met the 12th Drung Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche a few times. On one of these occasions, he also received the empowerment of the five deities of Tara from Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Then after he completed composing the text, he bestowed the oral transmission to Gyaltsab Rinpoche. As part of serving and spreading the activities of Gyalwang Karmapa as his regent, which the lineage of Gyaltsab always done throughout history, Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche has already given the empowerment of the five deities of Tara a few times recently. The most recent occasion was in Bodhgaya where Rinpoche gave the empowerment to the nuns of Karma Kagyu. Soon, Drung Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche will give this empowerment in Rumtek monastery, the seat of Karmapa, and later again in Taiwan in July 2025.
Source: The 12th Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche Facebook post
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