32.5"x22.5" Kurukulla Thangka Painting

 KURUKULLA – GODDESS OF ENCHANTMENTS

Kurukulla is an aspect of Tara, and she is also known as Red Tara. Her Tibetan name is Rigjyedma, meaning “she who is the cause of knowledge.” She comes to the aid of heartbroken lovers, bringing comfort and assitance to fractured relationships. She has a powerful seductive magnetism, and is potently attractive and enchanting to both men and women. She bestows these qualties upon her followers, enabling them to sway others to their wishes and thereby fulfill their deires. Her powerful charms also enable her to compassiontely lead straying practitioners back to the path of Dharma. She is considered to be the embodiment of the radiant enlightened power that overwhelms and overpowers all ordinary appearances. It is believed that ten thousand recitations of her mantra, Om Kurukulle Hum Hrin Svaha, grants all virtuous wishes.

GESTURES AND ATTRIBUTES

Kurkulla dances seductively with her right leg raised, treading upon a vanquished human form which represents obstacles, both outer and inner. She has four arms and holds various weapons indicating her powers to bewitch and ensnare the hearts of men and women. With two hands, she draws a bow made of flower garlands, and she prepares to shoot a beautiful arrow whose shaft is made of flowers and whose flight is made of leaves. Her other left hand holds a lasso and her right hand holds a flower-goad (or sometimes a flower-hook). These implements enable her to catch, subjugate and guide practitioners who have strayed from the path of Dharma. They also symbolize her ability to favorably influence and incline the minds of others to aid and protect her followers. She wears a beautiful drape made from a tiger skin, indicating her abandonment of hatred. She is also adorned with a long necklace of fifty freshly-severed human heads, because she vanquishes the fifty negative empotions. She is surrounded by a blazing fire of exalted wisdom, and she stands upon a lotus flower, demonstrating her primordial purity and enlightened awareness.