Toh 1716 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

A Praise of Tārā, Goddess of the Great Places

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1716
Genre: Eulogy
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,680 Tibetan characters · 450 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 praise addressed to the deity Tārā, specifically identifying her as the Goddess of the Sequence of Great Sacred Sites. The work functions as a liturgical invocation that seeks to map the deity's presence across both internal and external landscapes. It begins by establishing Tārā's transcendental nature—characterized by the absence of birth, end, or center—before transitioning to her immanent manifestation within the physical world. The text argues for a non-dual relationship between the deity and the environment, asserting that Tārā resides within the practitioner's own being as the four wheels while simultaneously presiding over twenty-four external sacred sites. By framing Tārā as the leader of these fields and the embodiment of supreme awakening, the text commits the reader to a practice of recognizing the sacredness of space and the internal presence of the deity as a means of spiritual realization.

Provenance

About this text

A eulogy in praise of the Goddess Tārā, the Pīṭhīkramatārādevīstotra is a work of the classical Tibetan tradition. The text is attributed to the Indian author Akṣobhyavajra. It was translated into Tibetan by Kaśmīri Parahita and lo tsa ba tshul khrims rgyal mtshan, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཤ, where it comprises two pages within the Other Wisdom Tantras collection. The work functions as a liturgical invocation that maps the deity's presence across both internal and external landscapes. It establishes Tārā's transcendental nature—characterized by the absence of birth, end, or center—before transitioning to her immanent manifestation. The text asserts a non-dual relationship between the deity and the environment, presenting Tārā as residing within the practitioner as the four wheels while simultaneously presiding over twenty-four external sacred sites. By framing Tārā as the leader of these fields and the embodiment of supreme awakening, the work invites the reader to recognize the sacredness of space and the internal presence of the divine. Scholars and serious readers consult this text to examine how the deity is identified as the Goddess of the Sequence of Great Sacred Sites and how her presence is integrated into the practitioner's own being.

Sanskrit title: Pīṭhīkramatārādevīstotra
Indian author: Akṣobhyavajra
Tibetan translators: Kaśmīri Parahita, lo tsa ba tshul khrims rgyal mtshan
Canonical collection: Other Wisdom Tantras
Genre: Eulogy
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཤ
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 Tārā, Goddess of the Great Places” (Toh 1716), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1716

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its synthesis of internal yogic anatomy and external pilgrimage geography, a common feature in Vajrayāna Buddhism. It illustrates the tradition's effort to sacralize the landscape by identifying specific sites as manifestations of a single divine principle.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Invocation and Nature of Tārā	Initial homage and a description of the deity's transcendental, unconditioned nature.
2	Immanence and Sacred Geography	A series of homages focusing on Tārā's presence within the self and her governance over twenty-four sacred sites.

Themes

Sacred Geography (2)
Non-duality of Internal and External Space (2)
Transcendental Nature of the Deity (1)

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

AnuvādaA Praise of Tārā, Goddess of the Great Places·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། པི་ཐི་ཀྲ་མ་ཏཱ་ར་དེ་བཱི་སྟོ་ཏྲཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། གནས་ཆེན་གྱི་རིམ་པའི་ལྷ་མོ་སྒྲོལ་མའི་བསྟོད་པ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་འཕགས་མ་ལྷ་མོ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སྐྱེ་དང་མཐའ་དབུས་རྣམ་པ་མེད། ། ཨེ་ཡི་ཡི་གེའི་རིགས་ལས་སྐྱེས། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཁུ་བས་མྱོས། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། བཅོ་ལྔའི་དུས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པ་མེད། ། དུས་མེད་ཐིག་ལེའི་ཚུལ་གནས་པ། ། སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་ཕྱེད་པའི་གར་གྱིས་གནས། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། དང་པོ་མཐའ་དང་དབུས་མའི་ཚུལ། ། རིགས་ལྔའི་རྒྱན་གྱིས་བརྒྱན་པ་ཡི། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྔ་ནི་གཅིག་གི་ཚུལ། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ས་དང་ཆུ་དང་མེ་དང་རླུང་། ། ནམ་མཁའ་རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ། ། ཁམས་ལྔ་ཡི་ནི་རྣམ་པའི་ཚུལ། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ཨཱ་ལི་ཀཱ་ལི་ལས་བྱུང་བ། ། དབྱངས་དང་གསལ་བྱེད་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ། ། ཡི་གེ་མེད་པའི་རྣམ་པ་ཐོབ། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། སྐུ་གསུམ་རིགས་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཚུལ། ། ཐར་ལམ་རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བ་ཡིས། ། རིགས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ་མེད་ལྷག་པའི་ཚུལ། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། སྟོང་ཕྲག་བདུན་ཅུ་གཉིས་གནས་པའི། ། རྩ་ཡི་བུ་གའི་སྦུབས་ཀྱི་ནང་། ། ཨ་ཝ་དྷཱུ་ཏཱིའི་དབུས་གནས་པ། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། སྟོང་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་སྟོང་པ་དང་། ། སྟོང་པ་ཆེན་པོ་གང་དུ་གནས། ། ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་པ་སྟེང་ན་གནས། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། བརྗོད་པ་ཙམ་ལས་སྐྱེ་འགག་མེད། ། བརྗོད་པའི་མཐའ་ལ་གནས་པ་དང་། ། ཚིག་བཞི་དག་གི་གང་དུ་འཕོ། །

In the language of India: Pīṭhakramatārādevīstotram. In the language of Tibet: Gnas chen gyi rim pa’i lha mo sgrol ma’i bstod pa (Praise to the Goddess Tārā of the Sequence of Great Sacred Sites). Homage to the Blessed Noble Goddess Tārā! Without birth, end, or center, Born from the family of the letter E, Intoxicated by the nectar of primordial wisdom— To the Goddess who dwells in the field, I prostrate. Without the aspects of the fifteenth day, Abiding in the manner of the timeless bindu, Dwelling in the dance of the half-lotus posture— To the Goddess who dwells in the field, I prostrate. In the manner of the beginning, end, and middle, Adorned with the ornaments of the five families, The five primordial wisdoms in the manner of one— To the Goddess who dwells in the field, I prostrate. Earth, water, fire, and wind, And space in every respect, The manner of the aspects of the five elements— To the Goddess who dwells in the field, I prostrate. Arisen from the vowels and consonants, Within all the vowels and consonants, Attaining the aspect of the letterless— To the Goddess who dwells in the field, I prostrate. The manner of entering the families of the three bodies, Through the emergence of the path to liberation, The supreme manner without the manner of families— To the Goddess who dwells in the field, I prostrate. Within the hollows of the channels Abiding in the seventy-two thousand, Dwelling in the center of the avadhūtī— To the Goddess who dwells in the field, I prostrate. Where emptiness, very emptiness, And great emptiness abide, Abiding above all emptiness— To the Goddess who dwells in the field, I prostrate. Without arising or ceasing beyond mere expression, Abiding at the limit of expression, Where the four words are transferred—

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.

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

definitionསྒྲོལ་མ “Tārā” — Female bodhisattva of compassion; the chief goddess of the activity family, personifying the true nature of the element wind; one of the five goddesses personifying the five “hooks of gnosis.”

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

terminologyབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → “the Blessed One”. 84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.

homonymབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས is rendered “the Blessed One” here; the glossary also records blessed, Blessed One, bhagavān for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས “the Blessed One” — In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possess

terminologyཡེ་ཤེས → “wisdom”. Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

homonymཡེ་ཤེས is rendered “wisdom” here; the glossary also records awareness, Wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཡེ་ཤེས “wisdom” — The term jñāna is formed by the root jñā , meaning “to know,” “to know of,” “to understand,” “to be aware of,” with the addition of the pratyaya lyuṭ , which can be interpreted as having different values (the instrument

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 ).

termལྷ་མོ → goddess

termསྒྲོལ་མ → Tārā

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termབཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས → the Blessed One

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ནང་དུ་རང་ལ་གནས་པ་ཡི། ། འཁོར་ལོ་བཞི་ཡི་རྣམ་པར་གནས། ། བྱང་ཆུབ་ལྷག་པའི་ཚུལ་གནས་པའི། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་བཞི་དག་གི་ཡུལ། ། ཞིང་གི་འདྲེན་པའི་ལྷ་མོ་དེ། ། ཞིང་བཞིར་སྙོམས་པར་གནས་པ་ཡིས། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། མུ་སྟེགས་ལྟ་བ་ཁྱབ་འཇུག་མ། ། ཉི་མ་ཚངས་པའི་རང་བཞིན་ཀུན། ། ཅི་ཡང་མེད་པའི་གཟུགས་འཛིན་མ། ། ཞིང་གནས་ལྷ་མོ་ཉིད་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། ཨོཾ་གྱི་གསང་སྔགས་འདི་ཉིད་ལ། ། བདག་གིས་མོས་པའི་སེམས་ཀྱིས་ནི། ། མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་བྱས་པ་ཡིས། ། སེམས་ཅན་རྗེས་སུ་འཛིན་པར་ཤོག། གནས་ཆེན་གྱི་ལྷ་མོ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། པཎྜི་ཏ་པ་ར་ཧེ་ཏ་དང་། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་གྱིས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། །

Homage to the Goddess who dwells in the fields. Abiding within oneself, she resides in the form of the four wheels. Homage to the Goddess who dwells in the fields, who abides in the manner of supreme awakening. In the twenty-four sacred sites, she is the Goddess who leads the fields. By abiding in equilibrium within the four fields, Homage to the Goddess who dwells in the fields. She is the Goddess Viṣṇu who pervades the views of the non-Buddhists, The nature of the Sun and Brahmā, She who assumes a form of nothingness. Homage to the Goddess who dwells in the fields. Through this very secret mantra of Oṃ, With a mind of devotion, May I, having become Akṣobhyavajra, Care for all sentient beings. The praise to the Goddess Tārā of the great sacred sites is complete. Translated by the Paṇḍita Parahita and the translator Tsultrim Gyaltsen.

terminologyཚངས་པ → “Brahmā”. The god, not 'pure' (which is ཚངས་པ too in compounds such as ཚངས་པར་སྤྱོད་པ, the vow of chastity). Context decides; do not carry the deity capital into the vow.

homonymཚངས་པ is rendered “Brahmā” here; the glossary also records brahman, brahmās, Brahma for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཚངས་པ “Brahmā” — One of the primary deities of the Brahmanical pantheon, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two deities (the other being Indra / Śakra ) that are said to have first exhorted Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The pa

termལྷ་མོ → goddess

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཚངས་པ → Brahmā

termསྒྲོལ་མ → Tārā

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

Terminology used in this text (8)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ལྷ་མོ	goddess	2
སྒྲོལ་མ	Tārā	2
བསྟོད་པ	praise	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	2
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས	the Blessed One	1	84000 harmonises on 'the Blessed One'. Do not alternate with 'Bhagavān' inside one text.
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
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
ཚངས་པ	Brahmā	1	The god, not 'pure' (which is ཚངས་པ too in compounds such as ཚངས་པར་སྤྱོད་པ, the vow of chastity). Context decides; do n

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 028_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཤ.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

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.

Anuvāda · NaxiAI