It was kismet to find this exquisite White Tara, a gift for my good friend on her 30th birthday, on Ritual Thanka's Etsy. They have so many practice-quality paintings created by true craftsmen, and the purchasing process is easy.
When I called Ritual's contact number to ask a question, their sales manager answered and took action to help even though it wasn't his normal job. (Thanks, Rajendra!)
They also sent me a brief personal video showing the packed thangka ready for shipping, and got it out the door quickly -- in the face of the covid pandemic, no less.
You can feel safe supporting Nepalese artists by purchasing from Ritual Thanka.
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DAC
It is said that Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara made strong vows in front of Buddha Amitabha to intentionally manifest into the three realms of the world in order to liberate all sentient beings from their sufferings. He also vowed that if by chance his compassion and courageous mind of mercy for all sentient beings were to decrease, then let his head and body just completely crack and fall into thousand pieces. Receiving blessings from Buddha Amitabha , Lokeshwora went through universal manifestations into the three realms of existence. Thereafter he went to Hell and emancipated them from both the hot and cold hells by teaching the mantra of Great Compassion. He in turn went to ghost realm, human, asura and deva realms to free sentient beings from their respective types of suffering. Through these actions, he thoroughly emptied the ocean of suffering. Following this, he went back to Buddha Amitabha and declared that the liberation had been effected. Buddha Amitabha then said to him,” You should look back into the world again.”Lokeshowara looked back and saw that the world was once again filled with sadness and suffering. This disappointed him and his body and head cracked and fell apart into one thousand pieces. Buddha Amitabha then said to him,” My son where has your courage, your mental strength gone?”He picked up all the pieces of his body and the head. At the same time, he said “This happened because of your vow. However, noble son, don’t worry.” He then blessed his broken heads into eleven faces and he sat upon those heads, and his broken body emanated into one thousand hands like one thousand petals of a lotus. Thereafter he said “I bow to you because your thousand hands are the hands of the thousand universal emperors and those eyes in each of the palm of the hands are the eyes of one thousand Buddhas who will appear in this fortunate eon. After that Lokeshvara appeared in many forms and he successfully accomplished innumerable altruistic actions.
Lokeshvara wears all the ornaments: earrings, bracelets, and so forth. He also wears an antelope skin on his shoulders and carries various weapons in his hands. Lokeshvara is a cosmic form of Avalokiteswara and is represented with eleven heads and one thousand arms. He is adorned with all the six jewels and is dressed in a monastic robe.
Lokeshvara is also the spiritual father of White Tara and Green Tara who were said to be formed from his two drops of tears when he saw the pain and suffering in the sentient beings. They are all boddhisattvas (liberators of the sentient beings from pain and suffering ) who have very prominent spots among the Tibetan Deities.