 Palden
Lhamo
(skr. Shri Devi tib. dpal ldan lha mo)
Palden Lhamo is of the major protector deities in Tibetan Buddhism
and the only female among the powerful group of the Eight Dharma
Protectors (skr. Dharmapalas). She is particularly favored by the
Gelukpa, for whom she is a special protector of Lhasa and the Dalai
Lama. She is known to appear at a mysterious lake, known as Lhamo
Latso, about ninety miles southeast of Lhasa. This lake is renowned
for revealing on its surface the reflections of the future. Palden
Lhamo is Tibetan for Shri Devi, as she is the Tibetan vision of
the terrific black goddess of India. Legends associate her with
both Tara and Sarasvati. The unusually large, closeup, figure of
Lhamo rides her wild mule through a sea of blood and fat. She is
blue-black and haggish, with pendulous breasts, flaming eyebrows
and mustache, and red hair standing on end. She brandishes a vajra-topped,
long-handled club and a bowl made from the skull of a child of an
incestuous union, which is filled with sense organs, including heart
and plucked-out eyeballs. She sits astride her mount garbed only
in the terrific ornaments of the fierce deities. A garland of freshly
severed heads hangs around her body, snakes hold up her orange-streaked
tiger-skin skirt, and five skulls topped with flaming jewels form
her crown. A moon disc in her hair and a radiating sun disc at her
navel are said to be gifts from the god Vishnu, just as her other
accoutrements are gifts from various other gods. Across the back
of the mule lies the flayed skin of her own son, drawn in pink lines,
the head hanging down in front of her and the hands and feet tied
together to keep the skin in place. One of her legends recounts
her existence as queen of the cannibal demons of Sri Lanka. She
had vowed to slay her own son if she failed to convert her husband
and their people from their evil ways of cannibalism and human sacrifice.
When her husband refused to heed her warning, she fulfilled her
vow, slew the child in front of the father, and assumed this awesome
form of Lhamo. Her wild mule is white in color and is out fitted
with a harness of venomous snakes. Over the mule's front flank hangs
a pair of dice used by Lhamo to determine the good or bad karmic
fate of beings, a skull, and a black bag filled with diseases. Out
of compassion, she swallowed all she could of the world's diseases.
Those left over she stuffed into this bag. After casting the dice
to determine the karmic situation, she breathes out these diseases,
or lets them out of the bag to overcome the enemies of the Dharma.
On the rear flank of the mule hangs a ball of magic thread, shown
with crossing blue and red lines, said to have been made from rolled-up
weapons. Nearby is the eye that formed when Lhamo pulled out the
arrow shot at her by her husband, the cannibal king, as she fled
Sri Lanka. Figures accompany Lhamo, Makaravaktra (Crocodile-Faced)
Dakini leading her mule and Simhavaktra (Lion-Faced) Dakini behind
her.
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