Tara Bosatsu　多羅菩薩

KEY WORD :　art history / iconography

A female form of *Kannon 観音 who appears as the "mother" of the Kannon section (Kannon-in 観音院 or Renge-in 蓮華院) of the *Taizoukai mandara 胎蔵界曼荼羅. One of the Thirty-three Kannon Sanjuusan Kannon 三十三観音. It is recorded that Xuanzhuang (Jp: Genjou 玄奘: 600/2-664) saw the image Tara Bosatsu in India, and several texts devoted solely to her were translated from the end of Tang and during the Song Dynasties (10-13c). She is mentioned in the FUKUUKENJAKU SHINPEN SHINGONGYOU 不空羂索神変真言経. She appeared in art in India as an attendant of Kannon in the Gupta period (6-7c); was shown commonly as a single deity in sculpture of the Pala period (9-12c); is shown in relief sculptures in Java in the 8-9c; was and is, in Tibet, a female alternate of Kannon; and appeared in her Indian/Tibetan form in paintings at Dunhuang (Jp: Tonkou 敦煌). However, she appears not to have had an independent cult in Japan, since there are no independent images. In the Taizoukai mandara she holds a lotus and is clothed from her neck to her ankles in robes that reveal nothing of her physique: an alteration from her Indian representation may have occurred in China.

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