Sitatapatra

Dukkar

Sitatapatra (Skt. Sitātapatrā; Tib. གདུགས་དཀར་, Wyl. gdugs dkar; Tib. Dukkar) — a female deity who manifested from the crown of Buddha Shakyamuni. Her practice is especially powerful for averting obstacles. She is often depicted with 1,000 faces, 1,000 arms and 1,000 legs, her central hands holding a dharma wheel and the handle of the white parasol from which she takes her name.

Texts

There are innumerable practices of Sitapatra in the many Buddhist traditions in the world. The following are the four canonical texts found in the Dharani section of the Dergé Kangyur.

• The Spell of Uṣṇīṣasitātapatrā (Skt.uṣṇīṣa sitātapatrā parājita pratyaṅgirā mahā vidyārājñī, Tib. གཙུག་ཏོར་གདུགས་དཀར་གྱི་རིག་སྔགས།, Wyl. gtsug tor gdugs dkar gyi rig sngags., or more fully Skt. ārya sarva tathāgatoṣṇīṣa sitātapatrā nāmā parājita pratyaṅgirā mahā vidyārājñī, Wyl. 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi gtsug tor nas byung ba gdugs dkar po can zhes bya ba gzhan gyis mi thub pa phyir bzlog pa'i rig sngags kyi rgyal mo chen mo, D 590/985)

• The Incantation of the Supremely Accomplished Sitātapatrā (Tib. གདུགས་དཀར་མཆོག་གྲུབ་ཀྱི་གཟུངས།, Wyl. gdugs dkar mchog grub kyi gzungs, or more fully Skt. ārya tathāgatoṣṇīṣa sitātapatrā parājita mahā pratyaṅgirāparama siddhā nāma dhāraṇī, Wyl. 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i gtsug tor nas byung ba'i gdugs dkar po can gzhan gyis mi thub pa phyir zlog pa chen mo mchog tu grub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs, D 591.

• The Incantation of Sitātapatrā (Skt. uṣṇīṣa sitātapatrā parājitā dhāraṇī, Tib. གདུགས་དཀར་གྱི་གཟུངས།, Wyl. gdugs dkar gyi gzungs, or more fully Skt. ārya tathāgatoṣṇīṣa sitātapatrā parājitā nāma dhāraṇī, Wyl. 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i gtsug tor nas byung ba'i gdugs dkar po can gzhan gyis mi thub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs, D 592/986)

• The Incantation of Sitātapatrā (Skt. uṣṇīṣa sitātapatrā parājitā dhāraṇī, Tib. གདུགས་དཀར་གཟུངས།, Wyl. gdugs dkar gzungs, or more fully Skt. ārya tathāgatoṣṇīṣa sitātapatrā nāmā parājitā dhāraṇī, Wyl. 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i gtsug tor nas byung ba'i gdugs dkar po can gzhan gyis mi thub pa zhes bya ba'i gzungs, D 593)

References

• Porció, Tibor. The One with the White Parasol: Four Sitātapatrā Texts in the Derge Kanjur and a Dunhuang Text (Pelliot tibétain No. 45) with an Annotated English Translation of the Longest Canonical Version. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Vienna, 2000.
• Porció, Tibor. “On the Brāhmī Glosses of the Uygur Sitātapatrā Text.” In Central Asiatic Journal Vol. 47, No. 1, 2003: 91 - 109.