A dark blue goddess riding side-saddle on a mule across a sea of blood, a club raised in one hand, dice and a bag hanging from the saddle, and an eye open on the mule's flank.
Palden Lhamo is the great female protector of Tibetan Buddhism. She guards the Dalai Lamas, the city of Lhasa and, in the words of many Tibetans, Tibet itself. Of all the protector deities she is the easiest to recognise: nobody else rides a mule. This guide covers her name, the story behind the image, how to read each part of a Palden Lhamo thangka, the oracle lake that bears her name, and the day each year when Lhasa comes out to see her.
Palden Lhamo meaning: the name
Palden Lhamo (Tibetan dpal ldan lha mo) means "Glorious Goddess." Her Sanskrit name is Shri Devi, which says almost the same thing: "Auspicious Goddess" or "Glorious Goddess."
She has other names for other forms. The best known in paintings is Magzor Gyalmo, which Himalayan Art Resources translates as "the Queen who Repels Armies," or "the Queen who has the power to turn back armies." Her most wrathful form is called Remati. Each form has its own texts, but most people simply call the mule-riding goddess Palden Lhamo, and so do we.
Who is Palden Lhamo?
Palden Lhamo is a dharmapala, a protector of the Buddhist teaching. The Rubin Museum describes her as the only woman among the eight great protector deities. She is honoured across the Tibetan traditions, but she is most central to the Gelug school, where she is the guardian of the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas, of the old Tibetan government, the Ganden Podrang, and of Lhasa.
Protectors look frightening on purpose. In Tibetan Buddhism a wrathful deity is not a demon; the fierceness is turned outward, against whatever would harm the practice or the people who keep it. The Gelug tradition often describes Palden Lhamo as a wrathful emanation of Tara, the gentlest of goddesses, and HAR describes Magzor Gyalmo as a wrathful emanation of Vajra Sarasvati, goddess of learning and music. The idea is the same in both: behind the fierce face is a mind of compassion.
The story behind the image
Nearly every detail of a Palden Lhamo painting comes from one story. It is told in several versions; this is the outline most often given.
Long ago, the goddess was the queen of a king of Lanka who hated the Buddha's teaching. She vowed that if she could not turn him, she would end his line. She failed. Their son was being raised to destroy Buddhism, and she killed him. Then she took his skin as a saddle cloth, mounted a mule, and fled north.
The king shot an arrow after her. It struck the mule in the rump. The goddess drew the arrow out, and the wound became an eye. That eye, on the mule's left flank in most paintings, is still there in every image of her, watching in the direction she has come from.
It is a hard story, and it is meant to be. Palden Lhamo is the protector who gave up what she loved most rather than let harm continue. That is why she is trusted with the most precious things: a lineage, a city, a teaching.
Palden Lhamo iconography: how to read the painting
A Palden Lhamo thangka is crowded, and almost every object in it has a name. Museum catalogues describe the classic form in close agreement. Here is what to look for.
Her body and face
She is dark blue, with three eyes, bared teeth and hair flying up like flame or smoke. She wears a crown of five skulls. Many paintings show a crescent moon in her hair and a sun disc at her navel; the catalogue texts say these were gifts from the gods. Her earrings, in the V&A's description, are a lion and a snake.
The club
In her raised right hand she holds a club topped with a vajra. The Huntington Archive's catalogue says it is used "to crush those who break their promises." Palden Lhamo is above all a guardian of commitments, and the club is her answer to those who betray them.
The skull cup
In her left hand, held to her chest, is a skull cup filled with blood. In many paintings she is drinking from it.
The mule and its eye
She rides side-saddle on a mule, usually white or pale. Its harness and reins are made of snakes. Her son's skin is the saddle cloth. And on the mule's flank is the eye from the story, open.
The dice
Hanging from the saddle is a pair of dice. The V&A's catalogue says they "decide whether people's fates are good or bad." Divination with dice is still associated with her in Tibet.
The bag of diseases
Above or beside the dice hangs a bag, described in the catalogues as a bag of diseases that she can release against the enemies of the teaching. It is a reminder that a protector's power cuts both ways.
The ball of thread
At the mule's rump hangs a ball of coloured thread. The V&A describes it as made of weapons magically turned into thread and wound together: arms that can no longer be used to fight.
The sea of blood
The mule gallops across a churning red sea. Above it the sky is often dark and full of flames. The whole figure leans forward. Palden Lhamo is always in motion; tradition says she rides across the world without rest.
Her attendants
Full paintings include her companions. A lion-faced dakini, Simhamukha, walks behind the mule, and a makara-faced dakini, Makaravaktra, leads it by the reins. Around them may appear the goddesses of the four seasons, the five long-life sisters and the twelve Tenma goddesses. A single-figure painting may leave the retinue out and let the goddess fill the frame.
Lhamo Latso: the lake of the goddess
South-east of Lhasa, at about 5,300 metres, is a small oval lake called Lhamo Latso, "the spirit lake of the goddess." It is named after Palden Lhamo. Tradition says she promised the first Dalai Lama that she would protect his line of rebirths, and since the time of the second Dalai Lama, regents and senior monks have gone to the lake to look for signs pointing to the next one.
The most famous of these visions came in 1935. The regent, Reting Rinpoche, saw in the water three Tibetan letters, a monastery with a jade-green and gold roof, and a house with turquoise tiles. The search that followed found the child who became the fourteenth Dalai Lama.
Palden Lhamo Day in Lhasa
On the fifteenth day of the tenth Tibetan month, the full moon, Lhasa holds a festival for Palden Lhamo. Pilgrims crowd into the Jokhang temple and the streets around it in their best clothes, bringing white khata scarves, flowers, fruit and barley beer to her statues. Women sing and dance in the temple courtyard, and in Lhasa the day has a special place for women. Tibetans in exile mark the same day with incense and prayers.
How Palden Lhamo is drawn on a thangka
Because she is a protector, Palden Lhamo is a natural subject for a dark-ground painting. Black-ground thangkas, called nagtang, were traditionally made for wrathful deities, and her flames, red sea and dark blue body stand out strongly against them. You will also see her on a blue or fully painted ground, as in our own drawing, where green and blue clouds break up a black sky full of fire. (We explain the different grounds in Black, Gold and Red Thangkas.)
She is often painted as part of a set of protectors, alongside Six-Armed Mahakala. Where both appear, Mahakala is the great protector of the teaching and Palden Lhamo rides in his circle.
Our Palden Lhamo thangka
Our Palden Lhamo Thangka shows her in the classic form described above: dark blue, three-eyed, crowned with five skulls, riding side-saddle on a pale gold mule across a red sea. Her club is raised, the pouch of dice hangs at the saddle, and a row of white skull bowls holds offerings at the water's edge.
The image is printed on heavy card from our own drawing, to traditional proportions. It is then finished by hand at a temple, where elderly lay Buddhists set every glass crystal and trace the outlines in gold glitter, about two days for each piece. It comes framed in silk brocade, 55 × 71 cm, with the image itself 40.2 × 56.2 cm. Part of every order goes back to that temple.
Palden Lhamo questions
Who is Palden Lhamo?
The chief female protector of Tibetan Buddhism, called Shri Devi in Sanskrit. She guards the teaching, the Dalai Lamas and the city of Lhasa, and she is the only woman among the eight great protector deities.
Why does Palden Lhamo ride a mule?
In her story she fled from the king of Lanka on a mule. The arrow he shot struck the mule, and the wound became an eye, which is why the mule in her paintings has an eye on its flank.
What does Palden Lhamo hold?
A club topped with a vajra in her right hand and a skull cup in her left. Dice, a bag of diseases and a ball of thread hang from her saddle.
What is the difference between Palden Lhamo and Magzor Gyalmo?
Magzor Gyalmo, "the Queen who Repels Armies," is one form of Palden Lhamo, and the one most often painted. Many people use the two names for the same mule-riding goddess.
Is Palden Lhamo the same as Kali?
No, though the two are sometimes compared, and the lake of Lhamo Latso is occasionally called by a name that links them. Palden Lhamo is a Buddhist protector with her own texts, story and iconography.
Can I hang a Palden Lhamo thangka at home?
Yes. Many people do, usually in a clean place at or above eye level. Wrathful protectors are traditionally hung with the same respect as peaceful deities. Our guide on how to hang a thangka covers height, placement and care.
Never looking back
Painters put the eye on the mule for a reason. Palden Lhamo rides forward and never turns around, so something has to keep watch behind her. The story gives her that, out of the very arrow meant to stop her.
May you ride through what frightens you.
Palden Lhamo Thangka · Six-Armed Mahakala Black & Gold Thangka · Bodhisattva and protector thangkas · Thangka collection
More from the Journal: Six-Armed Mahakala · Black, Gold and Red Thangkas · What Is a Thangka? · How to Hang a Thangka
More thangka deities: Marici · Kurukulla · Green Tara · Medicine Buddha