Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This ritual text, titled Mṛtyuṣṭhāka in Sanskrit and 'Chi ba bslu ba in Tibetan, provides a prescriptive method for averting death and pacifying the punishments associated with the Lord of Death. The work centers on the agency of the green-yellow Tārā, who is credited with liberating the practitioner from the harms of ḍākinīs and rākṣasas. The text commits the reader to a specific sequence of liturgical and material actions: beginning with a series of offerings—including dhāraṇīs, fire, and torma—and proceeding to a formal praise. The ritual concludes with a talismanic practice involving the drawing of a seven-spoked wheel in saffron on birch bark, accompanied by a specific petition for the pacification of sins and the inscription of an essence mantra. By combining devotional offerings with the creation of a physical object, the text seeks to intervene in the process of mortality through the intersection of deity invocation and symbolic geometry.
Provenance
About this text
Designed to pacify the punishments of the Lord of Death, the Mṛtyuṣṭhāpaka is a treatise belonging to the Other Wisdom Tantras. The work is attributed to the Indian author Tathāgatarakṣita. It entered the Tibetan tradition through the efforts of translators including Tathāgatarakṣita and cog gru lo tsa ba mya ngan med pa’i dpal, and is preserved in the classical Tibetan Tengyur, volume ཤ, where it extends over two pages. The work enacts a ritual process centered on the green-yellow Tārā, who is invoked to liberate the practitioner from the harms of rākṣasas and ḍākinīs. The procedure begins upon the appearance of death signs, such as physical changes or dream omens, and prescribes a sequence of dhāraṇīs, fire offerings, torma, and praise. This culminates in a talismanic practice where a seven-spoked wheel is drawn in saffron on birch bark and inscribed with essence mantras and a petition for the pacification of sins. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the specific liturgical and material methods employed to intervene in the process of mortality through the agency of Tārā.
Sanskrit title
Mṛtyuṣṭhāpaka
Indian author
Tathāgatarakṣita
Tibetan translators
Tathāgatarakṣita, cog gru lo tsa ba mya ngan med pa’i dpal
The work is significant as an example of the Tibetan tradition's integration of Indian tantric elements with ritual technologies designed for life-extension and protection. It illustrates the role of Tārā as a salvific figure capable of mitigating karmic punishments and supernatural threats.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Invocation and Efficacy
Homage to Tārā and a description of her ability to pacify the Lord of Death and protect against supernatural harms.
2
Ritual Procedure
Instructions for offerings, praise, and the creation of a saffron-inked talisman on birch bark.
Themes
Averting Death (1-2)
Ritual Offerings (2)
Talismanic Practice (2)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Mṛtyuṣṭhāka. In the language of Tibet: 'Chi ba bslu ba (Deceiving Death). Homage to the glorious Great Tārā!
Through the ritual of the green-yellow Tārā, she pacifies the punishment of the Lord of Death. Because she liberates from the harms of ḍākinīs and rākṣasas, she is the supreme Tārā.
First, when signs of death such as dream omens and physical changes have appeared, and in order to pacify the great fear of those who are about to die an untimely death, a yogi who has practiced the recitation of the essence mantra and familiarized themselves with undistracted meditative concentration should sit on a comfortable seat in a secluded place. Having first prepared the physical posture, they should generate great love and compassion for sentient beings and cultivate a slight familiarity with the illusion-like mind.
Instantly, one visualizes the glorious Great Tārā, green-yellow in color, her body beautifully adorned with various jewels. With her two hands at her heart in the mudrā of teaching the Dharma, she holds a blue utpala flower. She sits in the vajra posture upon a lotus and moon. At her heart, upon a lotus and moon, is a green-yellow syllable Tāṃ. From it, light rays radiate to the ten directions, rendering powerless the Lord of Death of those sentient beings who are about to die an untimely death. Gathering them back, one should focus on sentient beings oppressed by suffering with an illusion-like mind and recite this supreme essence:
Oṃ tāre tuttāre ture bhaya-haraṇi hūṃ hūṃ hūṃ mṛtyu-daṇḍa yama-daṇḍa mādhuna svāhā.
Thus, one should recite.
One should offer dhāraṇīs, fire offerings, torma offerings, and ritual offerings, and then perform a praise. Following that, one should draw a seven-spoked wheel with saffron on birch bark, adding the phrase "May the sins of [so-and-so] be pacified," and so forth, and then inscribe the essence mantras and dhāraṇīs. Then, having wrapped the wheel inside a casket made of precious materials or new clay, or within a horn or a wooden box, one should bind the container many times with red thread. Covering it with a garment of silk or white cotton, one should fasten it to a pillar of a great monastic community’s temple or to a pillar of a stūpa. On special occasions, one should make great offerings, and while meditating, recite the essence mantras, dhāraṇīs, and praises:
"O Noble Tārā, of great power,
By recollecting your secret mantra,
May the harm of the Lord of Death be pacified,
And may I touch the dust of your feet!"
This concludes the Deceiving Death, composed by the great paṇḍita Tathāgatarakṣita and blessed by the noble Mañjughoṣa. It was translated by the translator Chokdrupa Mya-ngan-med-pa'i-dpal.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations, and not in progress there. Translations published elsewhere have not been searched for, so one may exist. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.