Thangka of Red Tara with brocade, 32 by 21.5 inches

Red Tara is also known as Kuru Kulle in her standing form. Tara vowed, "I have developed bodhicitta as a woman. For all my lifetimes along the path I vow to be born as a woman, and in my final lifetime when I attain Buddhahood, then, too, I will be a woman."

As Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche wrote in his Introduction to the Red Tara Sadhana: "Tara is the flawless expression of the inseparability of emptiness, awareness and compassion. Just as you use a mirror to see your face, Tara meditation is a means of seeing the true face of your mind, devoid of any trace of delusion".