Praises to the Twenty-One Taras

Praises to the Twenty-One Taras — these well-known verses of praise have one verse for each of twenty-one forms of Tara and arose from the tantra known as “Offering Praise to Tara through Twenty-One [verses] of Homage” (Tib. སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བ་ཉི་ཤུ་གཅིག་གིས་བསྟོད་པ་, Wyl. sgrol ma la phyag 'tshal ba nyi shu gcig gis bstod pa) which can be found in the Derge Kangyur, Volume 81 - pp.435-437.

Each of the twenty-one forms of Tara is dedicated to a specific activity and there are also different levels of meaning for each verse of homage. In addition, there are several traditions of iconography for these forms of Tara–the five main ones being the traditions of Suryagupta, Atisha, Sadhana-samucchaya, Longchen Nyingtik (Jikmé Lingpa) and Chokgyur Lingpa. The first three are from the Indian tradition and the last two are from the Tibetan terma tradition.

Further Reading

• The Smile of the Sun and Moon by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche. Published by Sky Dancer Press. ISBN 1-880975-07-6
• Skillful Grace: Tara Practice for Our Time by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Trulshik Adeu Rinpoche. Published by Rangjung Yeshe Publications. ISBN 962-7341-61-1
• Tara’s Enlightened Activity by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Published by Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-287-8

Internal Links

• Twenty-One Taras

External Links

• Five systems of Twenty-one Taras from Himalayan Art
• Translation of the Praises to the Twenty-one Taras by Alexander Berzin
• Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche chanting the Prayer to the Twenty-One Taras, remixed by Gary Azukx Dyson