Green Tara - The Beautiful Goddess

Green Tara gazes at the viewer here with gentle eyes. The round face is smooth and without blemish, as a goddess's should be. The drooping lids perfectly frame the eyes. The thin lips are pursed, and deftly hued a sensual red. The drop shaped mark (tika) on her forehead breaks the monotony of the gleaming face enclosed by two extended earlobes, each hung with an elaborate earring. The short proportionate neck is incised with three symmetrical conch-like curving lines. These denote the sweetness of her spoken word. Further, two beautiful floral chokers also grace her neck. In a rare depiction, she is also shown here wearing a couple of vajras beaded in a string as a necklace. The ample, unexaggerated (unlike the Indian ideal) bosom tapers, not unlike a vase, to a slim waist which widens again to enframe the shapely lower part of her anatomy. A golden scarf whirls about the shoulders, forming a sort of halo around her middle. Beneath her waist, the Green Tara is draped in an elaborately embroidered dhoti.

Her body is full, yet lithe and active. The extended right leg resting on a lotus is a firm indicator of her readiness to spring into action whenever her worshippers are faced with peril in the course of their earthly sojourn. The second leg is comfortably tucked under the first.

The artist has managed to bestow (should it not be the other way round?) an immense ambience of sublime beauty on the Green Tara. He has expressed this resolve not only through her physical charms, but the placement of her garments, ornaments and the slight, sophisticated incline of her body all add up to achieve this effect.

The upper right side of the painting is dominated by the five Dhyani (Transcendent) Buddhas, each depicted with his characteristic color and mudra:

Vairochana - White displaying the Dharmachakra Mudra.

Amitabha - Ruby red in the Dhyana Mudra.

Akshobhya - Blue with the Bhumisparsha Mudra.

Ratnasambhava - Yellow in the Varada Mudra.

Exactly at the top of Green Tara's head is the green-hued Amoghasiddhi displaying the Abhaya Mudra, who is the spiritual father of Green Tara.