“In the centre of a blossoming lotus lake of brilliant pure mind,
A white swan with perfected seven-fold melodies and sweet lyrics,
May the lamenting, resonant earthy drum of your deep, vast throat,
Lure us to a joyous feast of a golden-age (perfect) Summer!”
–Excerpt from Praise to Red Tārā by 17th Karmapa
The Praise to Red Tārā by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa
Yesterday (23rd February 2025) the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje published a stunning new artwork of Red Tāra and an accompanying poetic praise. Here is my English translation of the praises, compiled with original Tibetan, phonetics, and detailed footnotes, to ensure accuracy of the 17th Karmapa’s words are kept clear and noted. I have also created a pdf file free download, for those who wish to print it out and recite it: Praise to Red Tārā by 17th Karmapa.
I have kept the English as close as possible to the word order, and repetition of words, to keep it as close as possible to the 17th Karmapa’s original. Ensuring the words remain poetic in English, but not adding to, embellishing, or changing the meaning and repetitions either. The 17th Karmapa simply titled it, Praise to Red Tārā, so I have added in my own title for it (taking inspiration from the Praises), Radiance of a Thousand Blazing Ruby-Red Suns. As far as I am aware, this is the first Praise to Red Tār̥ā that the 17th Karmapa has written and published.
New Artwork
The new artwork seems to be a new version of a 17th Century Red Tāra said to be from the Karma Kagyu tradition, that bears a striking resemblance to the artistic style of the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje (see below).
Red Tārā is also particularly associated with the tradition of Je Atisha, as I have written about before here in my Introduction to my translation of the 16th Century Tibetan Buddhist Jonang master, Je Tārānatha’s Explicit and Hidden Aspects of Tārā: Commentary on the 21 Tārās , who also places red Tārā as the central figure.
Green Tārā is generally associated with the Arya Nāgārjuna tradition, and the five-deity Tārā of the 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, as I have written about before here. More on that soon in a future post!
“Kar-lug” Tārā Tradition
The Praises was followed up by the publication of a new and extensive mandala offering to Tārā in the Kar-lug tradition, also composed by the 17th Karmapa. An Introduction from the Publishers was provided in Tibetan (translated by me here):
“Noble Ārya Tārā is the goddess with the greatest benefit and activity in both India and Tibet. Performing the four-fold mandala offering to her is a special practice of Jetsun Tārā. This tradition mainly originated in Tibet from Jowo Je Palden Atisha. It is said that there are three traditions: the Kamtsang tradition, the Narthang tradition, and the Sakya tradition. For a while, most of the followers of the Kamtsang tradition did not even know that there was a special tradition of their own lineage transmitted from the Dharma Lord, Düsum Khyenpa [1st Karmapa]. The root text of the Kar Lug Troma four-fold mandala offering is by Zhamarpa Khachö Wangpo. Howeve, due to the unclear original text, the excessive abbreviation of words, the unclear ritual procedure, and the need to shuffle the order, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Drodul Trinley Dorje has retained the words of Khakhyap Dorje and composed this Kar-lug Mandala ritual called The Iron Hook that Pulls In All the Qualities and Abundance of Samsara and Nirvana.
This is a unique tradition, complete with all the ritual components, very clear explanations, and detailed sources and reasons. It is extraordinary in both word and meaning, so we are publishing it here as an e-book. We ask that all individuals and organizations involved in this lineage pay attention to and practice it with respect and cherishing.”
Will write more on that new publication soon!
May this translation be of benefit in helping all us busy buzzing “bees” swarm to the bliss-wisdom nectar form of Red Tārā and delight in its exquisite taste! Dedicated to the Gyalwang Karmpa’s long-life and activities with a deep bow of unshakeable faith and devotion!
Music? Red Tārā mantra by Himalayan Echoes. for the burning magnetic devotion/passion of Red Tāra Got A Burning Desire For You by Lana Del Rey, and the brilliant spontaneity of One Red Rose that I mean by Captain Beefheart.
Translated and compiled by Adele Tomlin, 24th February 2025.
Praise to Red Tārā[1]
སྒྲོལ་མ་དམར་མོའི་བསྟོད་པ།
by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
དཔལ་ལྡན་གསེར་གྱི་ཉི་མ་སྟོང་འབར་བའི། ། གཟི་བྱིན་སྣང་བ་འབུམ་དུ་གདལ་བའི་སྐུ། ། བདེ་ཆེན་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱས་པའི་འོད་ཕུང་ཅན། ། ཁམས་གསུམ་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་ལྷ་མོ་ཁྱོད་ལ་འདུད། །
Glorious one blazing like thousands of golden suns[2],
Whose form radiates out millions of majestic illuminations,
A mass of light expanding great bliss-awareness[3],
Goddess who pervades the three realms, to you I bow!
རབ་དམར་བྱི་རུའི་མདངས་འཕྲོག་ཨུཏྤལ་རྩེར། ། དབང་མདོག་འགུག་བྱེད་འབར་བའི་འོད་རྣོན་གྱིས། ། ས་གསུམ་སྐྱེ་དགུའི་བུང་བ་ཀུན་སྡུད་པ། ། རྗེ་བཙུན་དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་དཔལ་མོ་ཁྱོད་ལ་འདུད། །
Capturing the redder-than-ruby brilliant hue of the Utpala [flower]’s peak,
Your magnetising powerful colour, blazes bright light[4]
Gathering all swarming sentient “bees”[5] of the three realms
Noble woman of glorious Spring[6], to you I bow!
སྨིན་འཁྱོག་ཨུཏྤལ་སྔོན་པོའི་གཞུ་བཀང་སྟེ། ། ཟུར་མིག་སྐར་མདའ་འཕངས་པའི་ཡུད་ཙམ་གྱིས། །
དྲེགས་ལྡན་སྙིང་གི་བརྟན་པ་རབ་འཕྲོག་ནས། ། སྣང་སྲིད་བྲན་དུ་བཀོལ་བ་ཁྱོད་ལ་འདུད། །
With a fully drawn bow of blue utpala [flower],
Whose sideways glance in a split second, like a shooting star,
Steals away[7] the steadfastness of a stubborn heart,
Enslaver[8] of all that appears and exists, to you I bow!
འཁྲིལ་ལྡེམ་ལྕུག་ཕྲན་གཞོན་ནུ་ལྟ་བུའི་ཕྱག ། ཅུང་ཟད་བརྐྱངས་པས་སྲིད་ཞིའི་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཀུན། ། འབད་མེད་ལག་པའི་མཐིལ་དུ་ལེགས་སྩོལ་བའི། ། ཡིད་བཞིན་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཁྱོད་ལ་འདུད། །
Hands like graceful, swaying branches of a youthful tree,
When slightly extended, bestow all abundance of existence-peace[9]
Effortlessly into the palm of our hands,
Wish-fulfilling powerful queen[10], to you I bow!
བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་པིར་གྱིས་ལེགས་བྲིས་པའི། ། མཛེས་སྡུག་ཀུན་གྱི་རྩེ་མོར་སོན་པ་ཁྱོད། ། མཐོང་བས་ནུ་ལྡན་ཀུན་ལ་ཆགས་བྲལ་ཏེ། ། ཁྱོད་སྐུ་དྲན་པའི་ཏིང་འཛིན་ཁོ་ནར་འཇུག། །
Exquisitely drawn with the pen of an ocean of merit,
You, having reached the pinnacle of all beauty, whom
On seeing, detaches lust/attachment for all women (breasted-ones)[11],
Drawing us to enter solely into the samadhi remembrance of your form.
མི་ཕྱེད་དད་པའི་ལྕགས་ཀྱུས་རབ་དྲངས་བའི། ། ཁྱོད་ཞབས་གཉིས་འཐུང་དབང་པོའི་བགྲོད་པ་ཅན། ། གྲུབ་གཉིས་གསེར་གྱི་རྐང་གདུབ་འཁྲོལ་བའི་སྒྲས། ། ཁོ་བོའི་རལ་པའི་ནགས་སུ་རྩེན་པར་མཛོད། །
Intensely pulled by the iron hook of unshakeable faith,
Your two feet, possess the gait of powerful drink,
May the jingling sound of your golden anklets of two attainments[12],
Play and frolic in the forest of my hair.
རབ་དྭངས་ཡིད་ཀྱི་པད་མཚོ་རྒྱས་པའི་དབུས། ། སྙན་ཚིག་དབྱངས་བདུན་རྫོགས་པའི་ངང་མོ་དཀར། ། ཟབ་ཡངས་མགྲིན་པའི་རྫ་རྔ་དར་དིར་གྱིས། ། རྫོགས་ལྡན་དབྱར་གྱི་དགའ་སྟོན་འདྲེན་གྱུར་ཅིག །
In the centre of blossoming lotus lake of brilliant pure mind,
A white swan with perfected seven-fold melodies and sweet lyrics,
May the lamenting, resonant earthy drum of your deep, vast throat,
Lure us to a joyous feast of a golden-age (perfect)[13] Summer!
ཀརྨ་པ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་རྡོ་རྗེས་མཛད། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༥ ཟླ་ ༢ ཚེས་ ༢༢ ལ།
Composed by the [17th] Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, on 22nd February 2024. Published on 23rd January 2025.
Translated by Adele Tomlin on 24th January 2025. May it be of benefit!
Endnotes
[1] The 17th Gyalwang Karmapa entitles the praise simply “Red Tāra” and does not use words like “sacred” or “noble” before her name.
[2] Here the Tibetan states ཉི་མ་སྟོང་འབར་བའི which means thousand-fold suns, or thousands of suns.
[3] Tibetan word here is ye she (ཡེ་ཤེས་ jñāna) which means ultimate awareness and is distinguished from sherab (wisdom: prajñā).
[4] Here the 17th Karmapa uses the word རྣོན which can mean ‘sharp’ but here, it has more the sense of ‘bright’ or ‘intelligent’.
[5] Tibetan words are: སྐྱེ་དགུའི་བུང་བ་ Here the 17th Karmapa uses a specific word Kye gu which means sentient beings. Used in conjunction with bees it seems he is using the metaphor to refer to all beings, and not just bees.
[6] The Tibetan word is often translated as ‘spring’ but it can also mean ‘delight’ or ‘joy’ or ‘fresh air’.
[7] Here the 17th Karmapa uses the same word for ‘rob’ or ‘steal’, so I have also repeated the English translation of that word.
[8] Here the Tibetan words are བྲན་དུ་བཀོལ་བ་, which can be translated as ‘enslaving’, or ‘binding into servitude’.
[9] Here this term སྲིད་ཞི is referring to existence as samsara, and peace as nirvana, neither of which are fully realized awakening of Buddhahood.
[10] Here the Tibetan word is Gyalpo, which actually means King, however, I have translated it as Queen, for the female Tāra.
[11] Here the Tibetan word ནུ་ལྡན used by the 17th Karmapa is an interesting metaphor, which means ‘women’ or ‘female’ but literally means ‘those with breasts’. So liberates one from lust for those with breasts!
[12] The two attainments here refer to the attainment of merit and wisdom normally.
[13] This Tibetan term here Dzogden, literally means ‘one which has perfection’ but is also used to mean the krtayuga golden age.
