Vajravārāhī
wrathful form of Vajrayogini in Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan Buddhism, Vajravārāhī ("The Indestructible Sow", Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ་, Wylie: rdo rje phag mo Dorje Pakmo) is considered a female buddha and "the root of all emanations of dakinis". As such, Vajravarahi manifests in the colors of white, yellow, red, green, blue, and black. She is a popular deity in Tibetan Buddhism, and in the Nyingma school she is the consort of Hayagriva, the wrathful form of Avalokiteshvara. She is also associated with the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra, where she is paired in yab-yum with the Heruka Cakrasaṃvara.
The Vajravarahi tulku lineage is the Samding Dorje Phagmo, who are associated with the Bodongpa, a little-known school of Tibetan Buddhism.
There are practices of Vajravārāhī in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, and in the Kagyu school Vajravarahi is one of its main yidam practices.
Vajravarahi is depicted as a naked, often red-skinned maiden in a dancing posture, with a kapala (skull cup) in her left hand and a khatvanga on her left shoulder, while her right hand holds a curved knife.
Iconography
Vajravārāhī is one of the most popular female Tantric deities in all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Although there are several forms, she is often depicted as either red, dark blue or black in color. The basic iconography is that she is naked, has one face, usually two hands, and holds a curved knife in her right hand, and a skull cup (kapala) of symbolic blood in her left hand.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vajravārāhī” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.