Thangka, grön Tara, tusch och färg på duk. Tibet, 1800-tal.

Once she achieved complete enlightenment, Tara promised to return in a female form to benefit all beings. Meditational practices and visual descriptions of Tara appear in all schools of Buddhist tantra. She is usually depicted as a beautiful young woman, commonly either green (for all types of meditation), white for longevity, and red for power. There are close to two hundred different meditational forms of Tara, varying in color, number of faces and limbs, and in peaceful or wrathful countenances. In this painting, Green Tara is flanked by Marichi to her right, the peaceful deity with clean skin and bright white clothing, and to her left by Ekajati, the ash-covered wrathful deity with third eye wrapped in a tiger skin.