Tārā at Shey — Ladakhi Vajrayāna
Deities

Tārā at Shey — Ladakhi Vajrayāna

Green Tārā — female bodhisattva of Ladakh

Status · Anusandhāna
Source · Tier 2
Tradition · Buddhist
Period · 10th c. CE onwards

Tārā at Shey — Ladakhi Vajrayāna

Tradition: Buddhist / Vajrayana / Tibetan / Ladakhi

This entry honours the self-representation of Buddhist tradition. India's sacred landscape includes hundreds of traditions beyond the Brahminical-Vedic canon. Each has its own cosmology, priesthood, ritual calendar, and relationship with the sacred landscape. Each deserves first-person recognition.

The Place

  • Location: Shey (near Leh), Leh, Ladakh (34.1253°N, 77.6097°E)
  • Tradition: Buddhist, Vajrayana, Tibetan, Ladakhi
  • Historical: 10th c. CE onwards

Story & Worship

Shey Monastery and Palace (10 km from Leh) was the seat of Ladakhi kings until the 17th c. The palace gompa houses a 12-m Shakyamuni Buddha statue and a significant Green Tārā shrine. Ladakhi Buddhists hold Tārā worship as a daily practice. The Shey Doo Lhoo festival (August) marks the sowing of the first seed. Distinct Ladakhi features include the Oracle priesthood — spirit-possessed seers — and the integrated pre-Buddhist Bon-chos (Bon religion) elements that survive in healing and weather-controlling rituals.

Mantra / Invocation

Oṁ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā

Festival Calendar

  • Losar (Magha–Phālguna (Feb), 15 days)
  • Shey Doo Lhoo (Shrāvaṇa (August), 2 days)

Sources

Drawn from scholarly ethnographies of Indian tribal and regional religions (Roy, Vidyarthi, Sinha, Fuchs, Sarkar, Sontheimer, Kinsley), colonial-era gazetteers, and contemporary community documentation.

❀

✦Wisdom Graph: Divine Associations✦

MantraOṁ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā
Offerings
tradition-specific local offerings (rice-beer, eggs, grain, mithun, fowl, etc. per tradition)
Sacred colours
green (Green Tara)white (Chenrezig)red (monastic robe)

📖 Stories

  • The sacred narrative of Tārā at Shey — Ladakhi Vajrayāna
    Shey Monastery and Palace (10 km from Leh) was the seat of Ladakhi kings until the 17th c. The palace gompa houses a 12-m **Shakyamuni Buddha** statue and a significant **Green Tārā** shrine. Ladakhi Buddhists hold Tārā worship as a daily practice. The **Shey Doo Lhoo** festival (August) marks the sowing of the first seed. Distinct Ladakhi features include the **Oracle** priesthood — spirit-possessed seers — and the integrated pre-Buddhist **Bon-chos** (Bon religion) elements that survive in healing and weather-controlling rituals.
    — Community tradition + scholarly sources

🪔 Worship Procedures

Daily rites
• tradition-specific (see body)
Puja sequence
  1. see body

🛕 Principal Temples

🎊 Festivals

  • Losar
    Magha–Phālguna (Feb) · 15 days
  • Shey Doo Lhoo
    Shrāvaṇa (August) · 2 days

📜 Primary Scriptural Sources

  • Oral tradition of Buddhistliturgical chants / folk narrative