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Palden Lhamo, Ochen Barma ‘Blazing with Great Light.’ This fierce female deity, classified under the category of Shri De...
08/18/2026

Palden Lhamo, Ochen Barma ‘Blazing with Great Light.’ This fierce female deity, classified under the category of Shri Devi (Palden Lhamo), is the wrathful protector aspect of Vajra Vetali the consort of the awesome meditational deity (ishtadevata) Vajrabhairava. Ochen Barma is also an emanation, or wrathful form, of the very peaceful deity Sarasvati, Goddess of Learning, eloquence and literature.

The Three Forms of Sarasvati According to the Vajrabhairava System of Ta**ra:
1. Vajra Vetali, the female consort in wrathful aspect embracing Vajrabhairava
2. Sarasvati, the peaceful aspect
3. Ochen Barma (Blazing with Light) the protector aspect of Vajra Vetali

Ochen Barma is wrathful in appearance, black in colour with one face and two arms. The yellow hair blazes upwards. In the upraised right hand she holds a staff and a butcher’s stick. In the lowered left hand she holds a bag of disease and a lasso. With the right leg bent and the left straight above to prone figures, naked, black in colour, she stands atop a sun disc, lotus and dhamakara - triangle. The flames surrounding her body unfold like a peacock’s tail.

There are twelve attendant figures accompanying Ochen Barma. The three most important of those ride animal mounts: horse, mule and wolf.

At the top center is Acharya Bhati. The seated figure at the viewer’s right is Manlung Guru of the 13th century. He was a contemporary of Buton Tamche Khyenpa and associated with the Kalachakra Ta**ra. At the viewer’s left is Dranton Dar Drag. The three teachers depicted each pre-date the 13th century and are identified by a name inscription beneath.

For the full write up on this painting of Ochen Barma, please visit the HAR website and search the item number : 576

Tara, Green (Tibetan: drol ma jang ku. English: the Green Liberator, or Saviouress): protecting from the fear of fire. (...
08/11/2026

Tara, Green (Tibetan: drol ma jang ku. English: the Green Liberator, or Saviouress): protecting from the fear of fire. (HAR item number : 834)

Tibetan: Drol ma jang ku

Tara is a completely enlightened Buddha who in a previous life had made the promise to always appear, after enlightenment, in the form of a female goddess for the benefit of all beings. She manifests in a variety of forms and numeric groupings, the Day and Night Tara with two forms, Tara that Protects from the Eight Fears with eight forms, and the group of Twenty-one Taras according to several different Indian traditions: Suryagupta, Atisha and the Sadhanasamucchaya.

This painting belongs to a set of nine. The first painting is the centerpiece of the set from which Tara gazes forward at the viewer. The other Taras are arranged at the sides of the centerpiece and face inward. Buddhist painting sets are almost always odd numbered so that one painting is at the center.

The Eight Fears that Tara protects from appear very common; they are protection from elephants, lions, snakes, ghosts, fire, drowning, bandits, and tyrants. These were in the past and still are in the present fears of many people around the world. Those eight are also known as the outer fears, sometimes understood as obstacles. Each of the fears is illustrated in each painting by a small vignette such as a person being chased by an elephant. On an inner level these fears/obstacles represent pride, desire, anger, ignorance, envy, and the like. There is also a secret level of meaning following the standard Ta***ic Buddhist division into outer, inner, and secret explanations. (The painting depicting the fear of snakes is missing from this set.)

Jeff Watt & Monty McKeever 4-2005

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