greeting cards & Postcard
Stupa Greeting Card
Designed by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche. The liberation on sight mantra is on the cover & liberation on touch mantra placed on the back where the recipient would hold the card.
Green Tara Postcard
Artist : Devendra Man Sinkhwal
Postcard 6" x 4"
Green Tara (Sepia)
Green Tara, the 'Liberator or Saviouress', is the principal female bodhisattva of compassion and the 'Mother of all the Buddhas'. She protects all beings from the eight great fears of samsara or cyclic existence: fire (anger); floods (attachment); lions (pride); elephants (ignorance); imprisonment (greed); snakes (jealousy); demons (doubt), and thieves (false views). Tara is peaceful and attractive, as youthful as a sixteen-year-old, and her beautiful body is adorned with all manner of divine silk, jewel and pearl ornaments. She sits upon a white moon disc, an open lotus and an ornate lion-throne in the posture of royal-ease, with her right foot resting upon a small lotus pedestal. With her extended right hand she makes the gesture of generosity, granting boons to all beings. With her left hand she makes the gesture of protection or giving refuge in front of her heart, with her thumb and ring finger holding the stem of an immaculate lotus that blossoms at the level of her ear. She appears within a nocturnal landscape, and her beautiful aura is fashioned from a symmetrical pair of scrolling jewel crests, which are entwined with a profusion of lotus flowers, leaves and tendrils.
© text by Robert Beer
Paldan Lhamo Yab-Yum Postcard
Artist : Chewang Dorje
Postcard 6" x 4"
Paldan Lhamo Yab-Yum
This black thangka depicts the union of the main Karma Kagyu protector, Dorje Bernagchen, and Palden Lhamo in her form as Ranjung Gyalmo, the 'Spontaneously Self-arisen Queen'. This image of the 'Great Goddess in Face-to-Face Union with her Consort' originates from a vision of the second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi (1204-83), and is unusual in its depiction of a male deity seated in reversed sexual union (yum-yab) upon the lap of the female protector. Dorje Bernagchen, the 'Black-cloaked One', is a dwarf form of Mahakala, who wears nine robes of embroidered black silk, and holds a crescent-shaped chopper and a skull-cup full of blood in his right and left hands. Rangjung Gyalmo sits upon her 'blue iron mule' that stands upon a sun disc and lotus. She holds a khatvanga-trident and a triangular iron dagger (phurba) in her two right hands, and a mirror and a serpent-noose in her two left hands.
Crowning this thangka's top centre is Vajradhara, with Dombhi Heruka (left), Marpa (right), Karma Pakshi (lower left), and Karmapa Mikyo Dorje (lower right). In the top left corner is Vajravarahi, and below her is Four-armed Mahakala. In the top right corner is four-armed red Jinasagara or Gyalwa Gyamtso (Avalokiteshvara) with his consort, and below him is Six-armed Mahakala. At the centre left is the wealth god Vaishravana, and below him is the wrathful black form of Srin-mgon thod-pa'i phreng-ba-can, the 'Lord of the Rakshas with a Garland of Skulls', and his red consort Srin-mo 'bar-ma dmar-mo, the 'Mistress of Rakshasis, the Blazing Red One'. At the centre left is Klu'i-rgyal sngad-kyi bdag-po, the 'Naga King, Master of Herbs'; and below him is the 'Field Protector', Kshetrapala (Tib. Zhing-skyong) and his consort. At the bottom centre is the 'Dark-Blacksmith', Dam-can rdo-rje legs-pa, who wields a foundry hammer and bellows, and rides upon a goat with twisted horns. In the lower left corner are Trakshad Mahakala (above), and the protective goddess Achi choki (A-pyi chos-kyi), the 'Protectress of Dharma', both of whom are mounted upon horses. In the lower right corner is black Klu-rgyal mkha'-nag, the 'Naga King, Black Sky', who is mounted upon an elephant; and the Kagyu protector goddess Tashi Tseringma, who is mounted upon a lion.
© text by Robert Beer
Khadiravani Tara
Artist : Kungchang Lama
Postcard 8" x 6"
Khadiravani Tara
Khadiravani Tara, or 'Tara of the acacia forest', is shown here with were her two bodhisattva attendants, Marici and Ekajata, who appear at her lower right and left sides. Marici (Tib: Od-zer Can-ma), meaning 'the goddess of light rays', holds the attribute of a flowering branch of the ashoka tree (Saraca Indica) in her right hand. And the semi-wrathful blue goddess Ekajata (Tib: Ral Chig-ma), meaning 'the single hair-lock', holds the attribute of a nectar-filled skull-cup in her left hand.
Khadiravani Tara sits in a posture of royal-ease upon a white moon disc and a multicoloured lotus, with her left foot drawn up and her extended right foot resting upon a small lotus pedestal. She is beautiful and youthful, green in colour, and wears all manner of divine silk garments and jewel ornaments. Her right hand rests upon her knee in the boon-granting varada-mudra, symbolizing that she bestows liberation upon all beings. Her left hand is held in front of her heart in the gesture of granting refuge or protection, symbolizing that she protects all beings from the 'eight great fears', which are: fear of thieves (false views); snakes (jealousy); fire (anger); lions (pride); elephants (ignorance); drowning (attachment); demons (doubt), and imprisonment (greed). With both hands she holds the stems of a blue utpala lotus, each of which blossom at the level of her shoulders. She abides amidst a tranquil landscape of rocks, clouds, mountains, lakes and flowers, and behind her throne ascends the branched canopy of an acacia (khadira) tree.
© text by Robert Beer
