Tara is the great female Buddha of Tibetan Buddhism — the embodiment of enlightened compassion in action. Her name means both "star" and "she who ferries across": Tara is the one who carries beings across the ocean of fear and suffering. Born, the tradition says, from a tear of the bodhisattva of compassion Avalokiteshvara as he wept at the world's sorrow, she is compassion so complete it becomes instantaneous.
Her most famous vow sets her apart. Told she should pray to be reborn as a man to progress on the path, the princess who became Tara answered that "male" and "female" are empty categories — and vowed to attain awakening in a woman's form, and in a woman's form to serve beings until the end of time.
Green Tara, her most-invoked form, is the swift protector: called upon in danger, fear, and at the edge of despair. White Tara bestows long life and healing. Her ten-syllable mantra — Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha — is among the most recited mantras in the Buddhist world, and has crossed warmly into Western mantra music and Kirtan.
In Traditional Art
Green Tara is depicted as a beautiful young woman of emerald green color, seated on a lotus with her left leg folded and her right leg extended — ready to step down and help at once. Her left hand holds the stem of a blue lotus (utpala); her right is open in the gesture of granting wishes. White Tara, by contrast, sits in full meditation with seven eyes — on her face, palms, and soles — seeing suffering everywhere.
In Kirtan
"Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha" appears often in Western chant gatherings, bridging the kirtan and Buddhist worlds. Singers call to Tara the way the Hindu chants call to Ma — the Divine Feminine as refuge — and her mantra is sung for protection, courage, and release from fear. Its melodies tend to be tender and spacious, mirroring her swiftness-in-gentleness.
