Tara: The Female Buddha of Compassion

By Tim Yu · Updated 2026-06-08

Tara is the beloved savioress of Mahayana and, above all, Tibetan Buddhism — in Encyclopædia Britannica’s words, a “Buddhist saviour-goddess with numerous forms, widely popular in Nepal, Tibet, and Mongolia.” Swift, protective, and tender, she is invoked daily by millions for rescue from danger and for help along the path to awakening. She is among the most important female figures in all of Buddhism.

Born from a tear of compassion

The most beloved story of Tara’s origin ties her directly to Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. Gazing on the endless suffering of the world, the tradition says, Avalokiteshvara wept — and from a tear that fell from his eye there formed a lake. Out of its waters rose a lotus, and when the flower opened it revealed the goddess Tara. As Britannica recounts this account, she is compassion made active: not the sorrow of looking on pain, but the swift response that springs from it.

That is exactly how she is felt. Britannica calls her “a compassionate, succouring deity who helps men ‘cross to the other shore’” — protecting travellers on real and perilous roads, and protecting practitioners on the inner road toward liberation. She is the one you call when you are afraid.

Green Tara and White Tara

Of Tara’s many forms, two are loved above the rest, and the difference between them is worth knowing:

• Green Tara is Tara in action — dynamic, swift, fearless. She is the protector who rescues from danger and fear, and is often regarded, Britannica notes, as the original Tara. Her posture says everything: she sits with her right leg extended, stepping down off her lotus, poised to spring instantly to the aid of whoever calls.
• White Tara embodies purity, serenity, and long life. Calm and still, she holds a full-blown lotus and is often shown with a third eye (and eyes on her palms and soles) — the better to see all suffering. Where Green Tara acts, White Tara blesses and heals.

Britannica observes that the two together are said to symbolize “the unending compassion of the deity who labours both day and night to relieve suffering” — Green Tara ever active, White Tara ever serene, between them covering every hour and every need.

Tibetan tradition also links the two to history: White Tara was associated with the Chinese princess and Green Tara with the Nepali princess — the two wives of the early Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo (Srong-brtsan-sgam-po), each remembered for helping bring Buddhism to Tibet.

A goddess of many forms

Tara’s compassion proved too large for a single image. Her forms multiplied — to a traditional 108 — and Tibetan temple banners often display the famous set of 21 Taras, each a different colour and aspect, each meeting a different fear or need. Red, yellow, blue, and black Taras join the green and the white, a whole spectrum of protective compassion.

Across the Himalayas she is woven into daily life: invoked in her own mantra and meditations, painted on countless thangkas and mandalas, and turned to in every kind of trouble. For many Tibetan Buddhists she is the most immediate and intimate of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas — the mother who comes at once.

Her mantra

Tara’s swift compassion is called upon through her own mantra, among the most widely recited in all of Tibetan Buddhism: Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā. The three forms of her name within it are traditionally read as three stages of liberation: Tāre delivers beings from the sufferings of saṃsāra; Tuttāre frees them from fear and from the inner obstacles on the path; and Ture carries them all the way to awakening itself — the mantra moving, like Tara herself, from rescue to protection to the final goal. The closing Svāhā is a benediction: “may it be so.”

Recited softly on a mala, murmured in a moment of fear, or kept as a daily practice, the mantra is for many Tibetans the most intimate of all devotions — the sound of calling the swift mother and trusting that she comes. It is part of why Tara, of all the great figures, is so often the one ordinary practitioners turn to first.

Compassion that steps toward you

What makes Tara so loved is that very readiness. Avalokiteshvara looks upon the world’s suffering; Tara moves. Born from his tears, she is the part of compassion that does not merely feel but acts — and acts quickly. In a tradition that places compassion at the centre of the path, she is its swiftest expression: not a distant deity (Buddhism is non-theistic), but mercy already in motion toward you. (For the wider family of these figures, see buddhas and bodhisattvas; unfamiliar terms are in the glossary.)