In the Tibetan tradition, the White Tara bestows Longevity, Wisdom, and Good Fortune upon those who call upon this enlightened Being who is richly adorned with jewels. She protects people from contagious diseases, dangers and disasters, protects earthly travel, untimely death, and even from fires and other calamities. Living Sentient Beings receive these blessings immediately as Tara is the manifestation of the wind element among all the Buddhas. The White Tara embodies truth, purity, and wisdom while representing the day with her Blue Lotus in full bloom while displaying peace, prosperity, grace and serenity as compassion for all those who suffer, enabling them to overcome obstacles and enjoy a long life.

The White Tara is painted in gold with seven eyes as symbols of perfect wisdom. When in refuge of the Teachings, the radiance of White Tara pacifies illness, evil spirits, negative karma, and mental obstructions. Many images, statues, and paintings depict these attributes specifically using the color white and display the pearls of wisdom in the vessel before her. The color white is the expression of the Rainbow Body which is indicative of attainment of spiritual awareness with transmission from practice or the state of mind which takes a person in death into the bardo state. Thangkas often link the origin of Tara to tears falling from Avelokiteshvara in addition to a beam of blue light emanating from the eye of this Bodhisattva.

Trandruk Monastery was built in the 7th century and is situated at the east bank of the Yalong River in the south of the Shannan District in Tibet. The most precious treasure in the monastery is a pearl Thangka brought by Princess Wencheng. The Tradruk Temple is one of the earliest Buddhist temples in Tibet and contains the precious relic, the Pearl Tangkha, which is 2 meters in length by 1.2 meters in breadth and made of 29,026 pearls and different precious stones by Naidong during the reign of the Pamodrupa Kingdom.

A visit to Tashilhunpo Monastery which is the official seat of the Panchen Lama, the chief spiritual and temporal authority of Tsang, founded in 1447 by Gendun Drup and the first Dalai Lama shows it to be the biggest Gelugpa monastery in the Tsang region of Tibet which once housed 3800 monks. The most amazing image in this monastery is the statue of the giant Maitreya (future Buddha) erected by the ninth Panchen Lama in 1914. This giant statue stands 26 meters in height. A total of 6700 ounces of gold and 115,875 kilograms of copper and a great quantity of precious things such as pearls, turquoise, coral and amber were used for its construction. This illustrates the relative importance and presence of pearls in this culture.

What does this signify for you today? The richness of such an ancient and revered tradition held the Pearl in high regard and used it in the practice of the Medicine Buddha. The images in the art of this area preserves the knowledge that the pearl was deeply valued, especially for Longevity and calming the Mind. With all the Stress that you encounter with your modern lifestyle, you can take a page from the Tibetan Book of the Dead and learn how to reduce Stress and cultivate compassion. When you utilize the Pearl white powder, you are guarded on your spiritual Journey to Enlightenment by the White Tara who reminds you of your basic goodness with her precious pearls of wisdom.