The teaching existed in a pure realm. Mahasiddhas brought it into the human world. But how exactly did a visionary experience become a practice of millions of people today? The answer leads through various cultures and more than a thousand years of history.
Indian Roots
The Written Record
In the 7th century, the Sarvatathagatamatr-tara-visvakarma-bhava-nama-tantra emerged in northern India. This monumental text explains Tara’s cosmic position and provides ritual instructions for mandalas, initiations, and offerings.
Within this Tantra is a chapter that would later gain independent significance: the 21 Praises of Tara. Each praise invokes a specific manifestation of Tara and a particular quality.
The great universities of India preserved these texts. Yet, the practice initially remained restricted to scholarly circles. The texts existed, but how were they to be practiced?
The First Vision: Mahasiddha Suryagupta
In the 7th or 8th century, a scholar named Suryagupta lived in Kashmir who had studied Buddhist scriptures and practiced tantric rituals. Then he fell terminally ill with leprosy.
Near a monastery stood a Tara statue said to have healing powers. Suryagupta retreated to a small hut nearby and prayed to her continuously for three months. At the end of this time, the temple gate opened by itself, and Tara appeared to him in a vision. The leprosy vanished from his body, except for a small wound remaining on his forehead.
When he asked about the reason for this remaining wound, Tara explained a karmic truth: in a previous life, he had been a hunter, killed animals, and burned down an entire forest. For this karma, he had suffered five hundred lives in the hells. The wound on his forehead was the final manifestation of this now exhausted karma.
Following this healing, Tara transmitted a complete system of the 21 Taras to him, including sadhanas, mantras, and visualizations. This system differed fundamentally from everything that would later reach Tibet. Suryagupta taught it to his direct student Sarvajnamitra. The practice initially remained in Kashmir. It would take centuries before it reached Tibet.
Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana
Three centuries later, the story took a different turn. In 982, a prince was born in the Kingdom of Bengal: Chandragarbha, “Moon Essence.” Even as a child, he had visions of Green Tara. At age eleven, he reached the age when princes typically married. Tara appeared to him again and showed him clearly: Marriage would lead him into worldly entanglements that could endanger his spiritual potential.
The young prince followed this calling and left the palace to become a monk. Under his ordained name Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana (“Lamp of Enlightenment”), he became the most outstanding scholar of his time. At Vikramashila, India’s most important Buddhist university, he was considered indispensable for defending the Dharma.
At the same time, the Tibetan king Yeshe Ö struggled to restore Buddhism in his land. After the collapse of the Tibetan empire, the Dharma had almost been wiped out. Translators whom Yeshe Ö sent to India came back with a clear message: Only Atisha could help Tibet. But the Indian abbots would never let him go.
The king tried to win him with gold. The abbots refused. In a final attempt, Yeshe Ö himself collected gold dust in the harsh north of Tibet. During this, he was captured. His grandnephew Jangchub Ö gathered the demanded ransom, but Yeshe Ö instructed him: “Do not send the gold for me. Bring Atisha to Tibet.” Shortly after, he died in captivity.
When the Tibetan delegation arrived at Vikramashila with this gold in 1040, Atisha was 58 years old. Again, Tara appeared to him:
“If you go to Tibet, you will live only twelve more years. But you will show countless beings the path to liberation.”
Atisha made his decision.
Two Paths to Tibet
Atisha arrived in Tibet in 1042. He devoted the remaining twelve years of his life to teaching. His Tara practice became the foundation of the Kadam school and spread from there throughout the entire Tibetan highlands.
Suryagupta’s complex system reached Tibet by two different routes. The first came through Mal Lotsawa Lodro Drakpa, who traveled to Nepal and India in the 11th century and brought back specific Tara cycles. His translations took root especially in the Sakya tradition.
The second path emerged only two centuries later, forced by a catastrophe: in 1193, Muslim armies destroyed Buddhist monastic universities such as Vikramashila and Nalanda. The last abbot, Shakya Shri Bhadra, fled to Tibet with the most precious manuscripts and arrived in 1204. Among them were Suryagupta’s Sanskrit texts. His translator Tropu Lotsawa Jampa Pal created the translations that became the source for the Kagyü and Jonang schools.
Thus both systems reached Tibet and survive to this day in different schools. Both had different answers to the same fundamental problem: How do you visualize the 21 Taras concretely? The praises give poetic descriptions, but no visual instructions. What postures do they take? How many arms do they have? What symbols do they hold?
Suryagupta and Atisha developed their systems in India. But in Tibet, a third iconographic tradition emerged.
The Three Iconographic Systems of the 21 Taras
The Suryagupta System: Maximum Diversity
This system, named after the healed Mahasiddha from Kashmir, is the most richly detailed iconographically. Here, each of the 21 Taras has a completely individual appearance. The diversity is radical: Each Tara has her own anatomy, from one to three faces, from two to twelve arms. Some sit, some dance, some ride on a mythical animal. No two are alike.
The thangka shows Samaya Tara, who is not part of the Suryagupta tradition but illustrates very well how individually such tantric Tara forms are designed: Each hand carries its own ritual attribute with a precise meaning, such as a Dharmachakra, a flaming sword, bow and arrow, or a skull cup.
The complexity comes at a price: Traditionally, this system requires 21 separate empowerments, one for each of the 21 manifestations. In addition, there is the root initiation of Green Tara herself, who is considered the source of all 21. Each of these Taras is an independent Yidam practice with a specific mantra and mudra. Complete transmissions of this cycle are rare.
Three Tibetan traditions preserve this system: The Sakya Sect as part of their highest teaching cycles, the Gelug Sect in individual master lineages, and the Jonang tradition, whose master Taranatha (1575-1634) compiled the most complete collection. Complete transmissions are rare in all three schools.
The Atisha System: Standardized Unity
Atisha took the opposite path: radical simplification instead of maximum diversity. All 21 Taras are variations of Green Tara: One face, two arms, Lalitasana posture (royal ease, right leg extended). The distinction is made exclusively through body color and the color of the vase in the right hand.
These colors follow the tantric system of the “Four Activities”:
- White for pacifying activity (purification of illness, negativity)
- Yellow for increasing activity (growth of merit, wisdom, life)
- Red for magnetizing activity (attraction of favorable circumstances)
- Blue/Black for powerful activity (destruction of obstacles)
The decisive advantage: A single empowerment suffices for all 21 Taras. This made the system more accessible and contributed to its enormous popularity. The practice focuses on the shared mantra and the 21 praises.
Two major Tibetan schools made this system their standard: In the Gelug Sect, the Atisha system has been the standard since Tsongkhapa (1357-1419). Later masters like Pabongka Rinpoche popularized the Cittamani Tara practice and spread it worldwide.
In the Karma Kagyu Sect, Tara is regarded as the protector of the entire lineage. The Karmapa himself is understood as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, thus closing the circle to Tara’s origin.
The Nyingma Terma Systems: Symbolic Differentiation
The Nyingma School practices Tara primarily through termas, hidden treasure texts that were mainly concealed by Padmasambhava in the 8th century and rediscovered centuries later. The two most well-known Tara termas come from Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798) with the Longchen Nyingtik and Chokgyur Lingpa (1829-1870) with the Zabtik Drolchok.
At first glance, these Taras resemble the Atisha system: One face, two arms, Lalitasana posture. But the crucial difference lies in the hands. Instead of vases, the Taras hold specific ritual objects directly on the lotus in their left hand: vajras, flaming swords, Dharma wheels, endless knots, phurbas, vishvavajras. These attributes are not decoration. They symbolize the specific function of each Tara in the context of Dzogchen practice.
Two masters shaped this system. Jigme Lingpa broke with the Atisha tradition of vases and introduced the symbolic emblems. Nearly a century later, Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa provided the practical implementation with the Zabtik Drolchok. Since Longchen Nyingtik does not contain a detailed Tara sadhana, Zabtik Drolchok became the standard practice for this lineage.
The merging happened organically: Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820-1892), considered the reincarnation of Jigme Lingpa, was at the same time the mentor of Chokgyur Lingpa. Together with Jamgön Kongtrul, they united both cycles into a unified practice. As with Atisha, a single empowerment suffices for the entire cycle.
Today, Zabtik Drolchok is the most widely practiced Tara terma of modern times. Through Chokgyur Lingpa’s close connection to the Karmapas, it also became the standard practice in the Karma Kagyu Sect.
But Tibet was not the only path. Parallel to the transmissions into the highlands, the Tara Tantra also reached China, where it took on a completely different form.
The Chinese Stream: The Zhenyan Tradition
When the Tara Tantra reached China, it became part of the Zhenyan School (真言宗, “School of the True Words”), the Chinese tantric tradition during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Here a distinct type of practice emerged: Tara was understood primarily as part of a large ritual network, in which she worked as protector and transforming power alongside other wisdom beings.
Three Masters, One Movement
In the 8th century, three Indian masters brought the Tara Tantra to China. Shubhakarasimha (at the imperial court in 716) laid the foundation by presenting Tara as part of the cosmic mandala of Buddha Vairocana. Vajrabodhi gave the feminine principle an equal place in the pantheon.
The most influential was Amoghavajra (705-774). As teacher of three emperors and translator of over a hundred tantric works, he fundamentally shaped Chinese Tara practice: shorter than the Tibetan variants, more ritually focused, with emphasis on mantra recitation and protection rituals. He understood how to adapt Indian forms to Confucian culture without changing their core.
After Amoghavajra’s death, however, the decline of the Zhenyan tradition as an institution began.
Survival in Hiding
The Huichang persecution (845) struck Buddhism hard. With the end of the Tang Dynasty (907), the Zhenyan School disappeared as an organized institution. But the practices did not die out.
They survived in three ways: Chan monasteries and Pure Land communities adopted Tara mantras, even without the complete tantric system. In popular devotion, Tara merged with Guanyin, and in many temples both figures stood side by side. And individual masters preserved the complete transmissions in hiding, passed on in small circles, from teacher to student.
In the 20th century, Chinese masters set out to recover the lost lineages. Some traveled to Japan, where the Shingon Sect had preserved these teachings in direct succession to the Zhenyan tradition. Others went to Tibet to retrieve transmissions directly. The Tara practice was recognized again as a living part of the Chinese esoteric tradition.
From History to Experience
From India through Tibet to China: There was never only one path to Tara. Each school preserved what it received and passed on what it understood. Some lineages flourished in large monasteries, others survived in small circles. All lead to the same source.
The practice of the Xuanfa Dharmazentrum also stands in this living transmission. What this means concretely and what the practice looks like is shown in the next step.