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ParnashavariIn Tibetan, the Sanskrit name Parnashavari meaning "leaf-clad goddess," is pronounced like Loma Gyunma. Like other forms of Tara, Parnashavari Devi is viewed as the Wisdom of Amoghasiddhi, and a manifestation of the Compassion of all Buddhas. She is invoked to protect us from contagious diseases. She is variously depicted as a glorious golden six-armed figure, or a wrathful dark blue hag with two arms standing in lunging posture (Skt. alidha), or lovely and riding a peacock, or as a very chubby crouching six-armed figure, or perhaps the most ancient form -- a kneeling green figure dressed in layers of verdant leaves who is brandishing a similarly layered fan. Karma Kagyu practice is of a 2-armed green form. There is also a Nyingma terma lineage form where she is riding a boar (male pig / swine.)
Meditation on this deity and the recitation of her mantra (see below) are believed to strengthen one's resistance to contagious diseases. One invocation declares that she "prevents all epidemics that torture . . . beings."
In the 18th-century narrow Tibetan painting linked above, likely intended as a wall panel, she appears in her skirt of layers of leaves with a garland about her neck in a lush landscape filled with offerings of wish-fulfilling jewels and other auspicious objects. In the foreground, birds swim in a stream amidst floating treasures. In her six hands, she holds attributes that include a stalk of fresh leaves representing the healing power of medicinal plants. (Jeff Watt) Other Descriptions
< Some attributes, either broken or stolen, are absent from this old bronze image.
In the Sadhana-mala, #149 describes her as green, with Amoghasiddhi at the crown, having a blue right face and a white left one. Her expression portrays an "angry laugh." Sadhana #150 describes Parnashavari Tara with 2 arms. Parnashavari is also described as an ogress (Skt. pisachi ) with a protruding belly, who is youthful, clad in a tiger-skin and garment of leaves, and trampling diseases and pestilence. The Ekalavira-Chanda-Maharosana Tantra suggests that, as an ogress -- a flesh-eater -- offerings of foods such as roasted fish are suitable. Some of Parnashawari's other epithets are: Sarvamariri-prashamani -- healer of all epidemic diseases, and Sarvashavaranam Bhagavati = Lady / Goddess, Healer of the Shavari. RitromaRitroma's epithet means "Mountain Mendicant [wandering yogini]" and she is the 20th of the 21 Taras. According to a Sakya transmission (Jetsun Chimey Luding in Paris, 2008), in the form called Ritroma, she is a semi-wrathful white Tara having one face, two arms. (Meat is not permissible before this practice.)
MantraOM, PISHACHI PARNASHAWARI SARVAJORA PRASHAMANAYEH, SWAHA ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sources Ringu Tulku (April 30, 2009.) "Parnashavari," HimalayanArt.org Lama Tenzin, KSDL, Toronto, ON, Canada (June 2009.)
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According to Thomas E. Donaldson (Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa),
the Dharmakosha-Samgraha describes the 6-armed form of Leaf-clad Tara
as having 3 faces --
yellow, red, and green. In her 3 right hands, she holds a double-dorje, a
club and an arrow; in her 3
lefts, a lasso, lotus and bow. The same document however, also describes
her carrying
a noose and wielding an axe (Skt: parashu.)