The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP 45
hands he "rolls the magic dagger" between his palms, a venerable
Tibetan means of casting a curse upon an enemy. All these "ancient"
deities are winged and embrace their consorts; all of them could be
included, at the discretion of the head monk, in the morning evocations;
and Doje p'urpa, one of the most important of them, receives
an annual five-day ritual on the eighth day of the fourth month.
The Dakinls
The dakas (male) and dakinls (female) form a class of allusive and
significant deities for whom Guenther appositely uses Karl Jasper's
expression "ciphers of transcendence." 84
They could not be better
described than by Snellgrove: 85
Pig. 7. The type of dakini: Vajravarahl, the diamond sow. From
1 iconographic sketch by Tendzin yongdii.