Toh 1587 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Praise of Vajrayoginī

Translated from the Tibetan by buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate · machine-assisted

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1587
Genre: Eulogy
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 024_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_འ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,901 Tibetan characters · 486 English words
Translation: buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate (English, machine-assisted)
Status: Edition 1.0 · 2026 · machine draft
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

This text is a devotional hymn, or stotra, dedicated to the deity Vajrayoginī. The work functions as a formal praise, utilizing a structure common to Indo-Tibetan liturgical poetry where the deity is first situated within a cosmic and symbolic environment before the focus shifts to a detailed catalog of her physical attributes. The author describes the deity as emerging from the seed syllable Hrīḥ and positioned upon a lotus and moon, framing her as a force capable of mitigating the suffering caused by mental afflictions. The text then transitions into a meticulous description of her ornamentation, listing specific jewelry such as crowns, earrings, and necklaces to emphasize her perfection and majestic presence. By engaging with this text, the reader is committed to a meditative visualization of the deity's form, where the aesthetic beauty of the figure serves as a vehicle for spiritual realization and the cooling of emotional torment.

Provenance

About this text

A eulogy dedicated to the deity Vajrayoginī, the Vajrayoginīstotra is a work of the classical Tibetan period. It is attributed to the Indian author Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. The text was translated into Tibetan by Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna and lo tsa ba rin chen bzang po, and it is preserved in the Tengyur, volume འ, where it spans two pages. Within the Tibetan canon, it is situated among the Śaṃvara and Related Tantras. The work enacts a formal praise of the deity, who is described as arising from the syllable Hrīḥ upon a lotus and moon to cool the torment of afflictions. Through a detailed catalog of her youthful beauty and jeweled ornamentation—including her crown, earrings, and a garland of fifty human heads—the text facilitates a meditative visualization of the deity's form. A scholar or serious reader consults this stotra today to examine how the aesthetic perfection and majestic bearing of Vajrayoginī serve as a vehicle for spiritual practice and the abandonment of conceptual thought.

Sanskrit title: Vajrayoginīstotra
Indian author: Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna
Tibetan translators: Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna, lo tsa ba rin chen bzang po
Canonical collection: Śaṃvara and Related Tantras
Genre: Eulogy
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. འ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Praise of Vajrayoginī” (Toh 1587), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1587

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant as it exemplifies the intersection of Indian poetic forms and Tibetan tantric visualization practices. It illustrates how the detailed description of a deity's ornaments is not merely decorative but serves as a mnemonic and meditative tool within the Vajrayāna tradition.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Invocation and Origin	Homage to Vajraḍākinī and a description of her emergence from the syllable Hrīḥ and her role in alleviating afflictions.
2	Description of Form	A detailed enumeration of the deity's physical beauty and her specific ornaments and jewelry.

Themes

Divine Iconography (1-2)
Alleviation of Afflictions (1)
Symbolic Emergence (1)

Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.

AnuvādaA Praise of Vajrayoginī·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བཛྲ་ཡོ་གི་ནཱི་སྟོ་ཏྲ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ། ། རྡོ་རྗེ་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ཧྲཱིཿ་ལས་གྱུར་པའི་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་ནི། ། ཉོན་མོངས་གདུང་བ་བསིལ་བའི་ ཕྱིར། ། མཁའ་ལ་དྲི་མེད་པད་ཟླའི་སྟེང་། ། ལང་ཚོ་ཤིན་ཏུ་མཛེས་པ་ལ། ། བཅུ་དྲུག་ལོན་པ་ལྟ་བུའི་ཚུལ། ། འཁོར་བའི་སྐྱོན་གྱིས་མ་གོས་ཕྱིར། ། སྟོན་ཟླའི་མདོག་ལྟར་འོད་ཟེར་འཕྲོ། ། འགྲོ་རྣམས་གཉིད་ལས་སད་མཛད་ཕྱིར། ། གྲག་སྟོང་ཧཱུཾ་དང་ཕཊ་སྒྲ་སྒྲོགས། ། བདེ་དང་སྟོང་པ་ ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས། ། གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པའི་ཟུང་འཇུག་ཐུགས། ། མཁའ་ལ་སྤྱོད་ཕྱིར་ཞབས་གཉིས་ནི། ། རྒྱབ་ནས་ཕྲག་པ་གཉིས་ལ་བཀལ། ། འགྲོ་རྣམས་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་འདྲེན་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། བྷ་ག་རྒྱས་ཤིང་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཡངས། ། ཐབས་ཤེས་གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། སྐུ་སྨད་རུས་པའི་རྒྱན་ དང་བཅས། ། ཆགས་ཤིང་བདེ་བརྒྱས་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། སྐུ་ཤ་རྒྱས་ཤིང་ནུ་མ་འབུར། ། མ་རིག་རྩད་ནས་གཅོད་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། ཕྱག་གཡས་གྲི་གུག་མཁའ་ལ་འཕྱར། ། གཉིས་མེད་བདུད་རྩི་མཛེས་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། ཕྱག་གཡོན་ཐོད་པ་མཁའ་ལ་འཛིན། ། འགྲོ་བའི་དོན་ལ་དགྱེས་མཛད་ ཕྱིར། ། ཞལ་ནི་འཛུམ་ཁྲོ་དག་དང་ལྡན། ། ཕྱོགས་བཅུའི་སངས་རྒྱས་གཟིགས་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། སྤྱན་གསུམ་མཁའ་ལ་དྲག་ཏུ་གཟིགས། ། སྐུ་ལྔ་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། དབུ་ལ་ཐོད་སྐམ་ལྔ་ཡིས་བརྒྱན། ། ཆོས་ཉིད་འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། དབུ་སྐྲ་མཐོན་མཐིང་ ཤིན་ཏུ་གནག། ཉོན་མོངས་བག་ཆགས་བསྙིལ་བའི་ཕྱིར། ། རུས་བཅས་ལྕང་ལོས་སེ་སྟོད་ནོན། །

In the language of India: Vajrayoginīstotra. In the language of Tibet: rDo rje rnal ’byor ma la bstod pa (Praise to Vajrayoginī). Homage to Vajraḍākinī! The Ḍākinī of the Sky, arisen from the syllable Hrīḥ, In order to cool the torment of the afflictions, Upon a stainless lotus and moon in the sky, With a youthfulness of extreme beauty, Appearing in the manner of a sixteen-year-old, Because she is unstained by the defects of saṃsāra, She radiates light like the color of the autumn moon. In order to awaken all beings from their sleep, She proclaims the sounds of the empty resonance of Hūṃ and Phaṭ. Bliss and emptiness are coemergent; Her mind is the non-dual union. To travel through the sky, her two feet Are placed behind, resting upon her two shoulders. To lead all beings to the Sky-faring realm, Her bhaga is full and exceedingly vast. Because she is the non-duality of method and wisdom, The lower part of her body is adorned with bone ornaments. Because she is full of passion and bliss, Her flesh is full and her breasts are prominent. To cut ignorance at its root, Her right hand brandishes a curved knife in the sky. To hold the beautiful non-dual nectar, Her left hand holds a skull-cup in the sky. Because she delights in the welfare of beings, Her face possesses a smile and a wrathful expression. To behold the Buddhas of the ten directions, Her three eyes gaze fiercely into the sky. To fully perfect the five bodies, Her head is adorned with five dry skulls. Because the nature of phenomena is unchanging, Her hair is a deep, intense blue-black. To cast off the afflictions and habitual tendencies, Her braided locks, together with bone ornaments, cover her upper body.

structureTitle block: the Sanskrit title is given as it is transmitted in Tibetan transliteration, not reconstructed from Sanskrit sources; the Tibetan title is translated after it.

definitionརྡོ་རྗེ “vajra” — This term generally indicates indestructibility and stability. In the sūtras, vajra most often refers to the hardest possible physical substance, said to have divine origins. In some scriptures, it is also the name of th

definitionབསྟོད་པ “praise” — An encomium or hymn of praise.

terminologyལས → “action”. 84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.

homonymལས is rendered “action” here; the glossary also records act, Action, activity for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལས “action” — Matters that govern the saṅgha community’s daily life, regular observances (such as the rains retreat and the restoration ) and special events (like ordination) are ratified by a formal act of the saṅgha. There are one h

homonymཉོན་མོངས is rendered “affliction” here; the glossary also records afflictions, defilement, afflictive emotion for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཉོན་མོངས “affliction” — The essentially pure nature of mind is obscured and afflicted by various psychological defilements, which destroy the mind’s peace and composure and lead to unwholesome deeds of body, speech, and mind, acting as causes f

definitionབྷ་ག “bhaga” — A polyvalent term that refers in tantric scriptures to the dharmodaya , which is iconographically represented as a red triangle. It is identical in essence with the buddha’s body, speech, and mind, symbolized by its thre

definitionབདུད་རྩི “amṛta” — The ambrosia (also translated here as “ immortality ”) that prevents death or spiritual death (hence the Tibetan term means “crushes spiritual death”). The Sanskrit term literally means immortality . It is often used met

terminologyསངས་རྒྱས → “buddha”. The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carried by context, not by a suffix.

homonymསངས་རྒྱས is rendered “buddha” here; the glossary also records Awakened, awakened, Buddha for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionསངས་རྒྱས “buddha” — The Indic term buddha means "The Awakened One" and is used in Buddhism as an epithet for the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama as well as other spiritually enlightened beings in general. “ Buddha ” is the past partici

terminologyཆོས་ཉིད → “the nature of phenomena”. Not 'dharma-nature' in running prose; 84000 harmonises on 'the nature of phenomena'.

termརྡོ་རྗེ → vajra

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termལས → action

termཉོན་མོངས → affliction

termབྷ་ག → bhaga

སྒེག་པའི་ཉམས་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། འགྱིང་ཚུལ་དར་གྱི་ཅོད་པན་མཛེས། ། ཡོན་ཏན་ཀུན་གྱིས་བརྒྱན་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། དབུ་རྒྱན་སྙན་ཆ་དཔུང་རྒྱན་དང་། ། མགུལ་རྒྱན་དོ་ ཤལ་དོ་ཤལ་ཕྱེད། ། ཕྱག་གདུབ་ཞབས་གདུབ་རྒྱན་རྣམས་ནི། ། རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཡིས་རབ་ཏུ་སྤྲས། ། རྣམ་རྟོག་སྤངས་ཕྱིར་མི་མགོའི་ཕྲེང་། ། བརྒྱ་ཕྱེད་དག་གིས་ག་ཤལ་བྱས། ། ཉོན་མོངས་བུད་ཤིང་བསྲེག་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། མེ་རི་དཀར་པོའི་གསེབ་ན་བཞུགས། ། སྒྱུ་མའི་དོན་དང་ ལྡན་པའི་ཕྱིར། ། འཇའ་འོད་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་ཀུན་ནས་བསྐོར། ། མཁའ་སྤྱོད་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། དད་བརྩོན་དམ་ཚིག་ལྡན་པ་ཡིས། ། མཆོད་བསྟོད་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་གྱུར་ན། ། ཡང་དག་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་གནས་སུ་ནི། ། འདྲེན་མཛད་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་ འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། མདུན་གྱི་མཁའ་ལ་ལྷ་མོ་ཁྱོད་བཞུགས་ནས། ། ལུས་ངག་ཡིད་གསུམ་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབས་པ་དང་། ། བེམས་རིག་བྲལ་ཚེ་བར་ཆོད་མེད་པ་རུ། ། ཡང་དག་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་ཐུགས་སུ་དྲང་དུ་གསོལ། ། མཁའ་སྤྱོད་མ་དཀར་མོའི་བསྟོད་པ། པཎྜི་ཏ་དཱི་པཾ་ཀ་རས་ མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། པཎྜི་ཏ་དེ་ཉིད་དང་། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

Because you possess a graceful and charming expression, your majestic bearing and silken crown are beautiful. Because you are adorned with every excellence, your head-ornament, earrings, armlets, necklaces, long necklaces, and half-necklaces, as well as your bracelets and anklets, are exquisitely embellished with jewels. To abandon conceptual thought, you wear a garland of fifty human heads as a breast-ornament. To burn the fuel of the afflictions, you dwell amidst a white mountain of fire. Because you possess the nature of illusion, you are completely surrounded by a mass of rainbow light. Homage and praise to Khachöma! If those possessing faith, diligence, and the samaya offer worship, praise, and supplication, you lead them to the authentic realm of Khechara. Homage and praise to you, the guide! O Goddess, as you abide in the sky before me, please bless my body, speech, and mind. When the material and the consciousness separate, without any obstacles, I pray that you lead me to the heart of the authentic Khechara. This praise to the White Khachöma, composed by the Paṇḍita Dīpaṃkara, is complete. It was translated by that same Paṇḍita and the translator Rinchen Zangpo.

periodམེ → “fire”. In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not capitalise the element.

homonymམེ is rendered “fire” here; the glossary also records Āgneya, Analā, Acalā for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམེ “fire” — Classified as a “ lord of beings ” ( prajāpati ).

homonymདམ་ཚིག is rendered “samaya” here; the glossary also records sacred vow, commitment, samaya vows for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionདམ་ཚིག “samaya” — Literally, in Sanskrit, “coming together.” Samaya refers to precepts given by the teacher, the corresponding commitment by the pupil, and the bond that results, which can also be the bond between the practitioner and the

homonymལྷ་མོ is rendered “goddess” here; the glossary also records devī, Devī for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ་མོ “goddess” — The “ apsarases ” are popular figures in Indian culture, they are said to be goddesses of the clouds and water and to be wives of the gandharvas . However, in the Kāraṇḍavyūha , they are presented as the female equivalen

termཉོན་མོངས → affliction

termམེ → fire

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termདམ་ཚིག → samaya

termལྷ་མོ → goddess

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

Terminology used in this text (12)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
བསྟོད་པ	praise	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	2
ཉོན་མོངས	affliction	2
རྡོ་རྗེ	vajra	1
ལས	action	1	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
བྷ་ག	bhaga	1
བདུད་རྩི	amṛta	1
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	1	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
ཆོས་ཉིད	the nature of phenomena	1	Not 'dharma-nature' in running prose; 84000 harmonises on 'the nature of phenomena'.
མེ	fire	1	In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
དམ་ཚིག	samaya	1
ལྷ་མོ	goddess	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 024_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_འ.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

Translation status: 84000 catalogue + registry; grade no-translation-known; checked 2026-11-10.

Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.

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