The Cult of Tara

Fig. 11. The "ancient" protectors: Za. From an iconographic
sketch by Tendzin yongdu.
kimkara "servant, attendant"?], a term in Tibet often abbreviated
simply to "ging" and prefixed to the names of the native guardians.
These subsidiary "ancient" deities are the gods of the Tibetan
earth who enter into the monastic cult of all the sects, but always,
except for the Nyingma, firmly subordinated to the leadership of
the Lord. These gods are worshiped daily by the Dragon Kajii, but
the Lord himself comes always at the end of things: he is worshiped
at the end of the day, his daylong ritual is performed on the twentyninth
of every month, and the special nine-day evocation of his
ei
ght forms comes at the very close of the year.