The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP
family padma vajra buddha ratna karma
impurity lust hatred delusion pride envy
purity:
peaceful
patron Amitabha Aksobliya Vairocana
Ratnasambhava
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Amoghasiddhi
fierce
patron Hayagriva Yamantaka •Vajraklla
Tibetan: Tamdrin Shinjeshe Ch'emch'og Yangdag Doje
p'urpa
morning evocations, where he takes the "ancient" Nyingnja from of
Quicksilver, the "black poison-faced," who is three-headed and sixarmed,
with the bottom half of his body in the shape of a magic
dagger impaling a corpse. This form of worship sets off the Dragon
Kajii from their cousins the Karma Kajii, who worship Yamantaka
in the form of Black Master of Life. Both these forms of Yamantaka
are winged and solitary, and they appear to be native Tibetan
developments of this divine type; but the Gelug typically evoke this
deity in the canonical form of Vajrabhairava, the "diamond terrifier,"
with sixteen feet, thirty-four arms, and nine heads (the main head
being that of a bull), embraced by his consort. This form is better
known in the West than the others because of its occurence, in this
and cognate forms, in Indian texts.
The remaining three fierce patrons in this arrangement are also
found in another "ancient" classification, the famous "eight doctrines"
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of the Nyingma Tantras. These consist of five classes of
supramundance deities—(1) Manjusri the deity of body; (2) Amitabha
the deity of speech; (3) Yangdag the deity of mind; (4) Ch'emch'og
the deity of quality; and (5) P'urpa the deity of function—
and three classes of the mundane families: (6) the deities to bring down
visitations of the mamo demonesses; (7) the deities of fierce mantras
and maledictions; (8) the deities of worldly offerings and praise.
Among these, Yangdag, the "perfect one," is pictured by the Dragon
Kajii as three-headed and six-armed. Ch'emch'og, the "most high,"
is considered the special fierce patron of K'amgargbn, and the altar
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the main temple contained a large image of him in his nine-headed
and eighteen-handed form, though he occurs also with three heads