Green Tara
attributed to Aniko (Nepalese, active in Tibet mid- to late 1200s)
c. 1260s, mounted 2020
- Medium
- thangka; gum tempera, ink, and gold on sized cotton; mount: silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 52.4 x 43.2 cm (20 5/8 x 17 in.); Overall: 107 x 65 cm (42 1/8 x 25 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- Central Tibet
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund by exchange
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
For Tibetans, Green Tara is one of the preeminent figures of their Buddhist faith, a radiant savioress who embodies the female form of the perfect, enlightened mind. The Green Tara in the Cleveland thangka—a Tibetan devotional painting on cloth—specifically dispels fear and provides protection, just like her mantra inscribed on the back side of the painting. Her green color and fear-not gesture link her to the cosmic Buddha of the North, enshrined above her head. Most scholars agree that this work was painted by the celebrated Nepalese artist known as Aniko.
