Lot #70: "Mother of all Buddhas" Handcrafted Terracotta "Tara": A Powerful Feminine Force in the Buddhist Pantheon".

A Powerful Feminine Force in the Buddhist Pantheon". Then there are arhats (holy men), Kings of Light, wrathful deities, and various lesser divinities who help followers along their spiritual path. These too are mostly male and are often depicted embracing their female consorts. Independent female deities are relatively scarce, however there is one Buddhist deity who is not only supremely beautiful in her representations, but is also believed to possess spiritual power that is at least the equal of her male cosmic counterparts: Tara.Tara is undoubtedly the most powerful female deity in the Buddhist pantheon. Her name means star in Sanskrit and she is believed to possess the ability to guide followers, like a star, on their spiritual path. In some northern Buddhist traditions, she is considered a bodhisattva and is often described in texts and depicted in imagery as the female consort of the most widely revered bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara. In some Buddhist legends, it is said that she was born from one of Avalokiteshvaras tears, shed in a moment of deep compassion. Other Buddhist legends, however, tell of a devout Buddhist princess who lived millions of years ago who became a bodhisattva, vowing to keep being reborn in female form (rather than in male form, which was considered more advanced on the path to enlightenment) to continue helping others. She remained in a state of meditation for 10 million years, thus releasing tens of millions of beings from suffering. Since then, she has manifested her enlightenment as the goddess Tara.I