“The yidam of the Lineage lamas. A continuously arising sign of accomplishment.
An exceptionally outstanding instruction.
It is praised as having one hundred and eight complete methods
from the practice methods of the ocean of various activities.” –2nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi
“Most of the Jowo [Atisha] tradition of White Tārā that became a great chariot of teachings, there were none that did not come from Je Gampopa.
“Generally, the Dakpo Kagyu tradition, and particularly the practice lineage of Karma Kamtsang, has a unique transmission of White Tārā . During the time of Jetsun Dromtonpa and the great siddha Karma Pakshi, there were accounts of thousands of White Tārā practices. Even in recent times, most of the older lamas in this practice lineage have taken White Tārā as their personal deity. However, until recently, there was almost no ritual for offering longevity (life-stability) prayers to sacred beings through the White Tārā.” –17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (2025)
Introduction: New White Tārā practice and Praises
For Noble Tāra day today, here is my new translation of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa’s Introduction to his new White Tārā longevity practice published online a few days ago. Recently, I translated the Praises to White Tārā from this new text, see here.
As someone who practices White Tārā daily, it is always interesting to read of new sadhanas, research and texts about her, particularly when they are composed by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa himself.
Music? White Tara mantra by Deva Premal and the Gyuto monks ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0IwRT-MLNM and Flow , Lover’s Rock , All About Our Love by Sade.
White Tārā in the Kagyu Four-fold Mandala Offering and in the Five-Deity Tārā of 1st Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa
Last year, I translated the extensive Introductory section of the 17th Karmapa’s new texts on the Kagyu lineage Tradition of Four-fold Mandala Offering to Noble Tārā, a significant piece of new research by the 17th Karmapa on the history and lineage of a unique noble Tārā practice that originated in India and how it was passed into Tibet, to the Dagpo Kagyu via Je Gampopa, to the Karmapas/Karma Kagyu. I reproduce the White Tārā part of that translation here below. In the practice, one visualises oneself as Red Avalokiteshvara and then makes offerings to White, Red and Green Tārā and then to them all combined as one.
Interestingly, among many points in that Introduction, the 17th Karmapa mentions how the 9th Karmapa, who composed volumes of work on White Tārā, made White Tārā the main deity of the Twenty-One Tārā practice:
“The Ninth Jetsun [Karmapa] also made White Tārā the main deity of the Twenty-One Taras. And because he held her at the core of his heart practice, many fathers and sons later received the empowerment and teachings as the first, and the first recitation retreat was also done on this White Tārā Wish-Fulfilling Wheel, etc., which is not just a mere following of the previous tradition, but has a special key point of outer, inner, and secret interdependence.”
Also, in March 2025, I translated the extensive Introductory sections to the new Five-Deity Tārā text called theAcacia Tree (Sengdeng Nagki) Five-Deity Tāra Mandala Practice, which Dispels All Obstacles and Spontaneously Fulfills All Desires: Youthful Blossom of Precious Turquoise (སེང་ལྡེང་ནགས་ཀྱི་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་སྒྲུབ་དཀྱིལ་བར་ཆད་ཀུན་སེལ་འདོད་དོན་ལྷུན་འགྲུབ་རིན་ཆེན་གཡུ་ཡི་ལྗོན་པ་རྒྱས་པའི་ལང་ཚོ་). That text contains an explanation of the five-deity White Tārā practice lineage, I have also reproduced that section here below.
I created the face of this Green Tārā based on this photo of me here taken when I was in Bodh Gaya January 2023 and practised the five deity Green Tārā at Tergar monastery with the nuns at the Arya Kshema, see here. Many people comment on my eyes and say I look like Noble Tārā so, here is a version ha ha.
New White Tārā life-stability practice by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa
In his Introduction to the new White Tārā long-life practice, the 17th Karmapa states:
“Generally, the Dakpo Kagyu tradition, and particularly the practice lineage of Karma Kamtsang, has a unique transmission of White Tara. During the time of Jetsun Dromtonpa and the great siddha Karma Pakshi, there were accounts of thousands of White Tara practices. Even in recent times, most of the older lamas in this practice lineage have taken White Tara as their personal deity. However, until recently, there was almost no ritual for offering longevity (life-stability) prayers to sacred beings through the White Tara.
I, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, based the practice on the White Tara sadhana composed by Situ Panchen Chökyi Jungne. He added necessary ritual components, and the main longevity prayer ritual was supplemented with the essential longevity instructions of Jowo [Atisha]’s tradition of White Tara, along with many profound and secret instructions of the siddha Karma Pakshi. The offerings, praises, and other verses were newly composed by the Gyalwang Karmapa himself, making the ritual concise yet profound and highly blessed.
These days, given the current fragility of the teachings, it is of utmost importance that the lives of venerable holders of the teachings are prolonged. Therefore, the Gyalwang Karmapa bestowed this ritual upon Drung Göshri Gyaltsab Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche Lodrö Donyö.
Now, with this ritual compiled into an e-book and shared on the Digital Dharma website, it is hoped that in the future, our monasteries and lamas will find it convenient and effective to offer longevity prayers using this text. And believe this will bring great benefit.”
In the colophon, the 17th Karmapa finishes with a prayer that faults be forgiven, and explains it was composed at the request of the 41st Sakya Trizin, and 12th Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche, and finished on the 19th October 2025.
“Through the profound deity, mantra, and samadhi,
Of the mother of all Victors, the Lady Jetsunma,
For the excellent foundation of the teachings,
May their lives be prolonged for a long time.
In this unadulterated practice,
Written in a convenient manner for practice.
Any faults that may be present,
I confess before the eyes of the Guru and Deity.
Through this virtue, may the glorious Lama’s
Lotus feet remain as a vajra dharma,
And may all their wishes be fulfilled,
And may they be guided in all lifetimes.”
This ceremony for presenting a long-life offering to a holy place through the method of the Immortal Life-Giving Noble Lady Tārā was composed at the request of the Supreme Protector of Sakya, the great 41st Vajradhara, who is the holder of the vast ocean of mandalas. The Regent of the Victorious One, the Twelfth Drungpa Goshri prophesied that if a long-life offering were presented to him through the Wish-Fulfilling Wheel Tārā, it would bring great auspicious connections.
Following this, the treasurer of the venerable Lama, the one named Sherab, who is knowledgeable in both secular and spiritual matters, said, “In our tradition, there are not many ceremonies for presenting a long-life offering through White Tārā. What should we do?” Generally, in our tradition, there is a lineage of White Tārā known as the Ngok tradition, which was directly received by Marston Chenpo from the great Panchen Ngawang Drakpa. This was given to Chokku Dorje Ngok. Additionally, from Ngawang Drakpa, it passed to Atisha, and the three streams of this lineage were gathered by Lord Gampopa. Thus, in this land of snows, this is known as the “Joluk [Jowo Atisha] White Tārā”
Most of the lineages of this lineage have not been passed through the great chariot of the teaching tradition, which has become a great chariot of the lineage. The foremost son of this lineage, Dusum Khyenpa and the later rebirth of that same person, the widely renowned siddha Karmapa, Karma Pakshi, and so on, have a large number of unique oral instructions, including the one hundred thousand collections of Tārā.
In particular, the majority of the previous teachers in the Golden Garland Lineage have received continuous visions and prophecies, which have increased their lifespan and enlightened activities, and so on. There are unique and exceptional close-lineage blessings. Although there is no existing text in our tradition for offering a longevity celebration through the practice of this noble lady, if I were to compose a new one, it might have some benefit and virtue.
Therefore, based on the texts of the Jowo and Mar-ngok lineages of the white Tārā in the Karmapa tradition, and on the longevity celebration rituals composed by Rimey(non-sectarian) holy masters, I present this in a way that is consistent and easy to use.
The countryman known as Ogyen Trinley, who has the Karmapa’s name as a flower on his head, composed this on the 28th day of the eighth month of the Wood Monkey year (October 19, 2025).”
Arranged and translated by Adele Tomlin on 24th May 2026 (8th day of 4th Lunar Saga Dawa month)
OTHER WHITE TĀRĀ RESEARCH BY 17TH KARMAPA
TRANSLATIONS by Adele Tomlin
Excerpt on White Tārā from the Kagyu Lineage Tradition Four-fold Mandala Offering to Noble Tārā by 17th Karmapa (2025) (tr. Adele Tomlin 2025)
“Nammo guru arya tārā ye.
To the lotus feet of the guru, the all-encompassing lord of all families,
And the noble lady, the mother who gives birth to all the victorious ones,
Indistinguishable from each other, I bow down, bestow the glory of life, please!”
As said in the Tantra on the Origin of the Tārā Tantras, Mother of All the Tathāgatas (Sanskrit: Tārāviśvakarmabhavatantra: སྒྲོལ་མ་མངོན་པར་འབྱུང་བའིི་རྒྱུད་) [i]:
“The white one who cheats death.”
In accordance with this, the White Tārā, known as the Wish-Fulfilling Wheel, is particularly endowed with the power of blessing to extend life, as renowned and proven in the histories of India and Tibet.
Lord Gampopa, having received the practice method from Geshe Dre, completed his life and deeds. Most of the golden garland of the lineage of meaning that follows him have also made this Noble Lady the object of their practice.”[ii]
Due to the deity being taken as the object of meditation, the lineage of uninterrupted blessings of the close lineage has been maintained, and many extraordinary signs of increased lifespan and enlightened activities have been achieved. Based on this, as Karma Chakme stated:
“Drakpo Duchen, Drikung, Phagmo Drupa, and others,
Kagyü lamas, preserving the lives of,
And expanding the enlightened activities of beings, this deity is.
Especially, until now in the Kamtsang,
With uninterrupted visions, the blessings are great.”
Furthermore, the reason for first generating White Tārā in front is that, in general, White Tārā is taught in the Origin of Tārā Tantra, the various manifestations of Tārā, and the Four Vajra Seats, and it is said that there are about eight Indian texts on it. In particular, from the Origin of Tārā Tantra:
“The white one who deceives/cheats death.” འཆི་བ་སླུ་བྟེད་དཀར་མོའོ། །
It is said that this indicates White Tārā, and because of that, most people think that she is just a deity of long-life. However, by practicing White Tārā, life, merit, and all wisdom increase. The mantra of this practice has the following meaning:
“Puṇya is merit. Jñāna is primordial wisdom. Puṣṭiṃ kuru svāhā means may those increase.”
Also, from the Death-Defying/Cheating Instructions (འཆི་བ་བསླུ་བའི་མན་ངག)23 composed by Paṇḍita Vāgīśvarakīrti (པཎྜི་ཏ་ངག་གི་དབང་ཕྱུག་གྲགས་པ)24, which is like the root of all Tārā commentaries:
“Brahmā, Indra, Viṣṇu, sun and moon,
Wrathful protectors of the directions and desire gods also, Without diminishing by even a hair’s breadth,
Victorious over death like the Lord of Death. Eliminates grey hair, wrinkles, badness,
Sickness, and all poverty,
the eight great fears, such as lions, and destroys the multitude of sufferings.
Without asking, resources etc., food, clothing, etc. is discovered.
Sword, eye medicine, foot ointment, Good vase, etc., all siddhis.
The mind of a skilled poet. Wisdom alone is immaculate.
Other desired accomplishments, also arise from this wheel.”
It is said that through the four activities and the eight attainments, all supreme and common accomplishments will be achieved.
In general, the Dharma cycles of Arya Tārā that were favoured in Tibet, starting from Marton Chenpo (མར་སོན་ཆྟེན་པོ), began to flourish in the Kagyu lineage. In particular, White Tārā was directly heard by Je Lho Drakpa Chenpo ( རྟེ་ལོ་བག་པ་ཆྟེན་པོ ) from Panchen Ngawang Drakpa (ཎ་ ཆྟེན་ངག་དབང་གྲགས་པ་) himself, and the lineage known as Ngok tradition was given to Ngok Choku Dorje (རོག་ཆོས་སྐུ་རོ་རྟེ་). Also, from Ngawang Drakpa to Jowo Je, and from him gradually to Dromtonpa and others, finally the teachings were bestowed upon the Dharma King, Dagpo Gampopa (Dakpo Lhaje). Thus, most of the Jowo tradition of White Tārā that became a great chariot of teachings, there were none that did not come from Gampopa.
Furthermore, the great river source of teachings of the Karma Kamtsang lineage, Precious Dusum Khyenpa, Choki Drakpa [1st Karmapa], also possessed many unique lineages of the teachings and instructions of Arya Tārā. The White Tārā teachings also include his personal deity Five-Deity White Tārā, the Ritual of the Tārā Mandala, and so on.
Also, from the document by the great accomplished Karma Pakshi [2nd Karmapa] called: A Compilation of the Meaning of the Tārā lineage:
“The yidam of the Lineage lamas.
A continuously arising sign of accomplishment. An exceptionally outstanding instruction.
It is praised as having one hundred and eight complete methods from the practice methods of the ocean of various activities.”
Moreover, among the six or nine transmissions of White Tārā in Tibet, the Dharma Lord Rolpe Dorje or Jamyang Chökyi Drakpa received longevity empowerment and Noble Tārā directly bestowed the close lineage self-generation, the White Tārā Nine Deity meditation and recitation, and the Gar-style, which has a meditation and recitation similar to the front- generation Amitayus Drupgyal tradition.
It is prevalent among all non-sectarian traditions such as the glorious Sakyapa, the Gelugpa, and the Jomo Nangpa. In particular, the seven transmissions of White Tārā converged in the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje26.
Since Jetsun [9th Karmapa] himself became like the master of this Dharma, the collected writings on White Tārā alone amount to one large volume.
Among the elaborate, intermediate, and concise Tārā rituals, there is the very elaborate one, The extensive one bestows the supreme accomplishment of immortality, liberation for those who desire it, and grants freedom. The intermediate one is the Inexhaustible Treasury of Immortality, All-pervasive, radiating light. The concise one is The Essence of the Nectar of Immortality, Benefiting others with Illumination. The very concise one is called the Method of Accomplishment of the Noble Tārā, the Wish-Fulfilling Wheel, Bestowing the Supreme Immortality, and the ritual of Tārā is called the Essence of Accomplishments, the method of reciting the Twenty-One Taras, etc., as listed in the catalogue.
Similarly, the Ninth Jetsun [Karmapa] also made White Tārā the main deity of the Twenty-One Taras, and because he held her at the core of his heart practice, many fathers and sons later received the empowerment and teachings as the first, and the first recitation retreat was also done on this White Tārā Wish-Fulfilling Wheel, etc., which is not just a mere following of the previous tradition, but has a special key point of outer, inner, and secret interdependence.”
Five-deity White Tārā lineage practice excerpt from Acacia Tree (Sengdeng Nagki) Five-Deity Tāra Mandala Practice, which Dispels All Obstacles and Spontaneously Fulfills All Desires: Youthful Blossom of Precious Turquoise (སེང་ལྡེང་ནགས་ཀྱི་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྷ་ལྔའི་སྒྲུབ་དཀྱིལ་བར་ཆད་ཀུན་སེལ་འདོད་དོན་ལྷུན་འགྲུབ་རིན་ཆེན་གཡུ་ཡི་ལྗོན་པ་རྒྱས་པའི་ལང་ཚོ་) (tr. Adele Tomlin 2024)
The Five-Deity White Tāra tradition is from the Tantra called ” Ultimate Gathering of the Source of All Tārā’s Activities (ཕིན་ལས་ཐམས་ཅད་འབྱུང་བའི་སྒྲོལ་མ་འདུས་པ་དྒྲོན་དམ་པ་ཞྱེས་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱུད་དམ།), or the widely known Origin of Tārā Tantra (ཡྒྲོངས་གྲགས་སྒྲོལ་མ་འབྱུང་བའི་རྒྱུད་)teaches the Five-Deity White Tārā tradition.
Contemplating White Tārā,
Recite one hundred thousand times silently.
Arising from the eternal union with Buddha,
Endowed with the four, such as Medhā [Yi Zhungma].
As stated in this scripture, White Tārā as the principal deity is surrounded by the retinue of four goddesses, Medhā (Yi Shungma) or Smriti, Prajnaparamita, Buddhi, and Svabhava (སྭ་བྷ་བ), is the mandala of five deities as described by the Venerable Lord of Jonang [Tāranātha] . Whether there is a separate sadhana for this is uncertain.
Within the Compendium of Sādhanas (སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཀུན་བཏུས), there appears to be a text called The White Tārā Practice of the Precious Dharma Lord, along with Ritual Activities, composed by the great adept Pakshi. This seems to correspond to the same description given here.
From that text itself, it describes the visualization of the five deities:
“White Tārā as the principal deity, Green Tārā of Activities in front, Yellow Tārā of Qualities to the right, Blue Tārā of Wisdom/Mind behind, and Red Tārā of Power to the left.”
The description of the visualization of these five deities is given in detail. In the colophon it says in relation to the phrase “the yidam of the Lord Dusum Khyenpa”, that Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche added a footnote to this identifying it as one of the “five sets of five.”
Nonetheless, the well-known Five-Deity Tārā of Dusum Khyenpa’s spiritual practice as being the Five-Deity Tārā of the Acacia Forest is stated extremely clearly in Dusum Khyenpa’s collected works; as well as in writings by Je Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa, the Ninth Karmapa, and other relevant literary sources.”
Endnotes
[i] In Tibetan Buddhism, “སྒྲོལ་མ་མངོན་པར་འབྱུང་བའི་རྒྱུད་” refers to The Tantra on the Origin of All Rites of Tārā, Mother of All the Tathāgatas (Sanskrit: Tārāviśvakarmabhavatantra). It is an essential scripture of the Action Tantra (Kriyātantra) class, in which the Buddha gives instructions on the rituals and mantras of the goddess Tārā
[ii]ན་མོོ་གུ་རུ་ཨཱརྱ་ཏཱ་ར་ཡེེ།
རིིགས་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་བདག་བླ་མ་དང་། །
རྒྱལ་ཀུན་སྐྱེེད་མཛད་རྗེེ་བཙུན་མ། །
རྣམ་དབྱེེར་མེེད་པའིི་ཞབས་པདྨོོར། །
བཏུད་དོོ་ཚེེ་ཡིི་དཔལ་སྩོོལ་ཅིིག །
དེེ་ཡང་སྒྲོོལ་མ་མངོོན་པར་འབྱུང་བའིི་རྒྱུད་ལས། འཆིི་བ་བསླུ་བྱེེད་དཀར་མོོའོ།ོ །ཞེེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོོལ་
མ་དཀར་མོོ་ཡིིད་བཞིིན་འཁོོར་ལོོ་འདི ི་ཉིིད་ཚེེ་བསྲིིང་བ་ལ་བྱིིན་རླབས་ཀྱིི་ཚན་ཁ་ཁྱད་པར་ཅན་ལྡན་པ་རྒྱ་བོོད་ཀྱིི་ལོོ་
རྒྱུས་རྣམས་སུ་གྲགས་ཤིིང་གྲུབ་ལ། རྗེེ་སྒམ་པོོ་པས་ཀྱང་དགེེ་བཤེེས་སྒྲེེ་པའིི་དྲུང་ནས་འདི ིའིི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་གསན་པས་སྐུ་
ཚེེ་དང་མཛད་པ་མཐར་ཕྱིིན། དོོན་བརྒྱུད་གསེེར་རིིའིི་ཕྲེེང་བར་བཞུགས་པ་ཕལ་མོོ་ཆེེས་ཀྱང་རྗེེ་བཙུན་མ་འདི ི་ཉིིད་