si ta tā rā
White Tārā is also known as Sita Tārā - the Sanskrit sita simply means white or pure, and is also a name for the planet Venus.
White Tārā mantra is the basic Tārā mantra with an extra phrase inserted. In Magic and Ritual in Tibet : The Cult of Tārā
White Tārā is distinguished from Green Tārā (other than their colours) by having both legs tucked up in the meditation posture, and by having seven eyes: the two usual ones, and then one in her forehead (the Wisdom Eye) and one in each palm and the soles of her feet.
White Tārā is associated with the Padma family of Amitābha, who in graphical representations appears in the form of Amitāyus (Infinite Life) and sits in her headdress, or above her head.
Seed syllable
 Siddhaṃ |
The seed Syllable of the Tārā's is tāṃ There is an interesting relationship between the body of White Tārā, and the form of the tāṃ in the Siddhaṃ script which you can read about on White Tara, tāṃ, and the Mandala. |
 Tibetan - Uchen (from Rivendell Retreat Centre) |
mantra
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Transliteration
oṃ tā re tu ttā |
oṃ tāre tuttāre ture mama ayuḥ puṇya jñāna puṣṭiṃ kuru svāhā
Notes on the mantra
Pushtiṃ kuru means something like "make to increase", and mama, being the gentive singular of the 1st person pronoun, means "my" or "mine".
The mantra as it appears above uses the word ayuḥ, which is the more correct, inflected Sanskrit. However the sadhana of White Tārā as passed down to Sangharakshita from Dhardo Rinpoche, uses the word ayur which is the uninflected form. The words have the same root meaning: life. Some schools of thought suggest that the mantra should be pronounced exactly as transmitted, and others say that if along the way the Sanskrit has been corrupted then it should be corrected and pronounced properly. And thus lineages diverge. As it happens the ayuḥ form is marginally more attractive when writing the mantra out.
The mantra can be modified by replacing the 'mine' with the name of a person whom you wish to benefit - like a transference of merit. In the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order we often chant the White Tārā mantra for the benefit of our founder Sangharakshita, using the familiar honorific Bhante. The example below uses ayur which becomes three characters: a yu r (r with the virama character to indicate there is no vowel). Bhante is written according to the convention which uses the anusvāra for any nasals - ie it's written: bhaṃ te.
White Tārā for Bhante Sangharakshita
oṃ tāre tuttāre ture bhante ayur puṇya jñāna puṣṭiṃ kuru svāhā
Last updated: 11:48 22/04/2008