“In the Sengdeng palace, the supreme place of awe, from the ocean of unborn compassion, emerald in color, is a precious and beautiful woman, adorned with ornaments. Victorious mother Tārā, to you I bow and praise.” སེང་ལྡེང་ཕོ་བྲང་འཇིགས་པའི་གནས་མཆོག་ཏུ། ། སྐྱེ་མེད་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་མཚོ་ལས་མརྒད་མདོག ། བུད་མེད་རིན་ཆེན་ཡིད་འོང་རྒྱན་ལྡན་མ། ། རྒྱལ་ཡུམ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། །” —Garland of Utpala Flowers by 17th Karmapa (July 2025)
Introduction
Today, 14th July 2025 (Indian time 6pm) the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje graciously bestowed a live oral transmission of his new daily practice text on the Five-Deity Tārā “Garland of Utpala Flowers” (སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་རྒྱུན་ཁྱེར་ཨུཏྤལ་ཕྲེང་བ་). The new text (composed on 5th July 2025) was published online (in Tibetan only) yesterday, on 13th July 2025.
The Zoom room for the 17th Karmapa’s oral transmission was full, with the 17th Karmapa also joking later that “even he was finding it hard to join” ha ha. I tried to join the room one and a half hours early and still was not permitted to enter, but thankfully the transmission was also transmitted live on Facebook too. The 17th Karmapa gave transmissions for both this daily practice text, and a longer Five-Deity Tara sadhana text, which he composed a few months before. He explained that he had received the transmission from HE 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche, who had received it from the 10th Pawo Rinpoche, when he was staying in France. The Karmapa also added that it was currently in Tibetan only but that later there might be translations of it in English and Chinese. Well, guess what, the good news is here is my English translation of it, which I worked on yesterday, and decided to publish today after the oral transmission! It is downloadable here as a pdf file: Five-Deity Tārā Daily Practice “Garland of Utpala Flowers” by 17th Karmapa July 2025
In March 2025, I translated the Introductory sections of that extensive new sadhana ritual for the Five-deity Tārā of First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa (1110-1193) newly composed and published by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje in Tibetan only. In the Introduction of that new text, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa provides a detailed explanation of the origin of the Noble Tārā tradition in Tibet and India, and in particular the origin of the Five-deity Tārā (Lha-Nga) ritual that originated in Tibet with the 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa (as one of his five sets of five deity practices)[i]. My review article and freely downloadable pdf of that new text and translation can be read here[ii]. However, I noted in that review that the sadhana (which I did not translate) was lengthy and thus not practical for laypeople with little time on their hands to practice.
Therefore, it was great to see the new daily practice published yesterday online, which is much shorter and easier to practice and started to translate it (and compile phonetics with it) yesterday evening. Today, it was announced that the 17th Karmapa was giving the online oral transmission of this text, which I attended and received online too. Sealing the activity with the blessing of the author and 17th Karmapa’s lung and energy. Here is the downloadable file Five-Deity Tārā Daily Practice Garland of Utpala Flowers by 17th Karmapa July 2025 English Translation Adele Tomlin. Only to be practised by those with the empowerment and oral transmission from a qualified lineage master.
Colophon of the new daily practice text
In the colophon of the new text, the 17th Karmapa states that it was composed recently on the 5th July (Dakini Day) 2025. That was the same day of the Kagyu Protector ritual and birthday of HE 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche was also commemorated in Taipei, Taiwan (which I was fortunate to be able to attend in person). Sadly, the 17th Karmapa did not attend publicly, and no reason was given for that absence either, even though his sister attended the event[iii]. I am sure that the 17th Karmapa wanted to go though, as he did not attend the religious conference held in Dharamsala on 2nd July, which was a significant (but important) absence, which I will write about more later. Thus, the timing of this new composition is interesting too. Perhaps the 17th Karmapa had hoped to visit Taiwan and attend the event and bestow this text in person and was prevented from doing so?
Also, the 17th Karmapa writes that the daily practice text was “requested by some fortunate and interested individuals, in accordance with the Chinese version of Vairocana’s translation and the Ninth Karmapa’s peaceful deity practice method, the Precious Rosary, etc.
“Authorisation” record of Five Deity Tārā transmission and empowerments received by the translator of the text
As the translator of this text, I have previously published original research and translations on, and received the Five-Deity Tārā of the 1st Karmapa tradition empowerment and transmission, several times now, from HE 12th Drungpa Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche (for the first time in 2018 in Sikkim, India) . Then, in 2022 (during the COVID lockdown), I translated a short daily practice of the five-deity Tārā by the 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, see here[iv]. This is the first time the practice had been translated and published in English. As part of that work, offered freely to all, I also created an image graphic, to help with the visualisation of the mandala of the deities of five-deity Tārā.
More recently, in Bodh Gaya, India during the Arya Kshema event there (February 2025) (see report of that here). Then, more recently in person at Taipei, Taiwan during the Gyaltsab Rinpoche birthday event hosted there (between 5-6th July 2025). As I wrote in my report about that, the latter empowerment, Rinpoche did not give any extensive visualisation of the mandala, but as I had already translated these texts, I was able to visualise the mandala, and hold it and receive the empowerment of the blue Utpala lotus flower in Green Tārā, in the central deity’s heart (despite the commotion of many female volunteers running and around and chattering endlessly at the back of the hall, where I had no other choice but to sit! ha ha ).
The 17th Karmapa has also given three empowerments and teachings on the five-deity Tārā tradition in 2007, 2012 and 2018. In those teachings, the 17th Karmapa explained that it was one of the 1st Karmapa’s main practices, he had five main deity practices and each practice involves five deities, including the main one, that is why is it called five sets of five deities[v].
Placing and symbols of the five goddess deities
The placing, instruments and colours of the deities around Green Tārā as the central deity, differ in some texts, which the 17th Karmapa explained in his Introduction to the longer sadhana. However the four retinue goddesses remain the same as:
- Marici/Ozer Chenma (Marici Great Light Rays)
- Ekajaṭī /Ral-Chigma (One-Braided)
- Jāṅgulī/Dug-Selma (Poison-Dispelling)
- Mahāmāyūrī/Maja Chenmo (Great Peacock One)[vi]
It would have been wonderful if the 17th Karmapa had been able to bestow this transmission in person at the 12th Gyaltsab Rinpoche’s birthday celebration in Taipei (on the day this text was composed), and the 17th Karmapa’s absence there was unexplained and sad indeed. A lack of merit and causes and conditions by those attending and organising perhaps, or a deliberate sabotage attempt by anti Karmapa/Karma Kagyu factions both within the Tibetan community and outside, or both?
Whatever the case, I had been feeling frustrated and annoyed that the 17th Karmapa did not appear in public in Taiwan (even though his sister had) and was starting to feel more distant and unaligned with him (for a variety of reasons, not just that one), but his oral transmission helped repair that distance, and as his vajra tongue speed read the text, it fanned the flames of devotion and passion and a “naked” union of wisdom and bliss sealed the transmission on the secret vajra level. It turned out to be a good thing I was unable to join the Zoom room ha ha. There was an absolutely stunning statue behind him on the table, with many implements, it looked like 1000 armed Avalokiteshvara but cannot be sure.
In any case, I hope this new translation of the 17th Karmapa’s new daily practice text, uplifts hearts and minds (it certainly did mine) is of benefit and enables more people to read and practice this tradition, who have the requisite empowerment and transmission.
May this translation and article be of benefit to the 17th Karmapa’s health, activities, legacy and that of the Karma Kagyu and Vajrayana Buddha Dharma tradition in general.
Music? Green Tārā mantra chanted by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, Many Faces of Tārā by Adele Tomlin/Dakini Songs, Green Tārā energy/colours reel. For the brilliant swiftness of Green Tārā’s activities, Summer by Vivaldi (a tune I used to love playing as a teenager on the piano!), and for her unconditional love, rare flower of beauty and compassion, By Your Side by Sade.
Written, translated, compiled and edited by Adele Tomlin 14th July 2025.
Sources on Green Tara on this website
ENDNOTES
[i] For more on the five sets of five deities of the 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa, see website section and articles listed in it here:
[ii] See the article about the Five-Deity Tārā of the First Karmapa, longer new sadhana text and Introduction by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, here.
[iii] For a report about that event in July 2025, Taipei, Taiwan, see here.
[iv] See 2022 article about the Five Deity Tārā tradition, together with a translation of a short daily practice by the 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa here.
[v] In addition to Noble Tārā’s five deity practice, the other five-deity practices include the Hevajra, Hayagriva, Chakrasamvara, and Vajra Varahi five-deity practices. So five sets of five-deity practices.
[vi] For example, in the 1st Karmapa’s short daily practice text (which I translated here in 2022), the four other deities visualised with Green Tārā are:
- Marici/Ozer Chenmo (Brilliant Light Goddess: yellow),
- Maja Chenmo (Great Peacock Goddess: blue),
- Dugselma (Poison Eliminator Goddess: green) and
- Ekajati/Relchigma (Single-Clefted Goddess: black).
I knew it! Thank you so much, dear Adele!!! What an offering to His Holiness.
Thank you! Happy to hear you find it valuable and yes it is an offering to the root guru, to the Karma Kagyu and to Dharma and beings in general.