The Cult of Tara

14 MAGIC AND RITUAL IN TIBET
various sects that developed out of the Buddist renaissance. All
three of the major "new" sects (so-called as opposed to the "ancient"
sect of the Nyingma) considered themselves at least collaterally
descended from Atlsa; each sect could point in its lineage to holy
men of former times who had been famous devotees of the goddess,
although each may have stressed one or another portion of the
original transmission.
The Gelug sect—the "Virtuous Ones"—considered themselves
especially the heirs of Atlsa's Kadam lineage, the lineage "Bound to
the Proclamation," and of its special devotion to Tara; indeed, they
style themselves the "New Kadam." "The holy Tara made a vow,"
says Yeshe jets'en, "to preserve all the friends of the Kadam who
followed after Atiia; as she says in the Book of the Kadam:
I will protect your followers:
when you have obtained these my counsels
teach them to your followers."
"Accordingly," he continues, "all the disciples of Atlsa and of the
Conqueror Tsongk'apa [the founder of the Gelug sect, 1357-1419] 54
took the holy Tara as their highest deity, and prayed to her alone;
especially the Omniscient Gedundrub [the first Dalai Lama, 1391-
1475] 55
would do whatever he did only after he had prayed to the
holy Tara, and thereby his active power to augment the aims of the
teachings and of beings became as great as infinite space. Indeed, the
majority of holy men in former times took the holy Tara as their
highest deity, and by the power of their prayers the quality of their
understanding of the precepts was greatly increased in the stream
of each of their hearts: and they succeeded in augmenting the aims
of the teachings and of beings, just as it is related in their various
biographies." 56
The Sacha sect, too, as we have seen, took an early and active
interest in the goddess—she was their patron saint of scholars—but
they also felt that Tara in her form of Kurukulla, the magically
potent goddess of subjugation, was a special patron and protector
of the sect. Her mantra was given in the Hevajra Tanlra, a text of
whose revelation they deemed themselves the foremost guardians
and exponents, and her special rituals of domination had been
transmitted to their lineage through Dragpa jets'en. 57
But all the
sects would call upon this goddess when the need for her rather