The Cult of Tara

50 MA GIC A ND RITUA I IN TIBET
Fig. 10. The "ancient" protectors: Ekajata, guardian of mantras.
From an iconographic sketch by Tendzin yongdii.
legpa, the "oath-bound excellent diamond," colored red and riding
upon a lion, but whom the Dragon Kajii worship as black, holding
a hammer and a blacksmith's bellows, crowned by a bird and riding
on a snarling goat.
Ranged below these highest deities are the Five Bodies headed by
Pehar, the five Long-Life Sisters, the twelve guardian goddesses of
the teachings headed by the Lady of the Turquoise Lamp; the God
of the Great Northern Plain and all the hosts of mountain-gods;
and the protecting Father-Mother Lords of the Cemetery in the form
of dancing skeletons, sometimes called "gingkara" [from Sanskrit