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 Rengebu-in 蓮華部院) 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. 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; was shown commonly as a single deity in sculpture of the Pala period ; 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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