Shyama (Green) Tara
late 9th century
Asia: India, Bihār
On View

The Buddhist deity Tara is the goddess of compassion, who aids devotees in overcoming personal difficulties. The inscription inside her halo is the Buddhist creed, which reads "[Buddha] has revealed the cause of those phenomena which spring from a cause and also [the means of] their cessation. So says the Great Monk."

Details

  • Title: Shyama (Green) Tara
  • Date: late 9th century
  • Medium: Schist
  • Dimensions: 37 x 18-3/4 x 8-1/2 in. (94 x 47.6 x 21.6 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
  • Accession Number: M.1974.06.S
  • Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation

Object Information

  • Leoshko, Janice, Asian Art: Selections from the Norton Simon Museum, fig. 16 pp. 18-19
  • Knoke, Christine, Minerva, fig. 9 p. 28
  • Linrothe, Rob, Oriental Art, 1994, p. 32
  • Linrothe, Rob, Ruthless Compassion: Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art, 1999, pp. 112-113
  • Teoh, Eng Soon, The Lotus in the Buddhist Art of India, 2002, pp. 248-249
  • Pal, Pratapaditya, Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum, Volume 1: Art from the Indian Subcontinent, 2003, no. 135 pp. 175-176
  • Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1029 p. 364
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