This 15″ Kurukulla (Red Tara) statue is partly fire gilded in 24K gold — the dancing four-armed figure fully gilded, set against a dark red oxidized mandorla of flames with gold accents at the tips — handcrafted in Patan, Nepal by master Newar artisans using the traditional lost wax sculpting method, with the face hand-painted in the red associated with Kurukulla’s specific form. Read more about Kurukulla’s iconography and practice in our Dakini statues FAQ.
Kurukulla (also known as Red Tara) is a Dakini figure associated with the magnetizing activity — one of the four categories of Tantric practice alongside pacifying, enriching, and destroying. While the other three activities remove obstacles, restore conditions, or eliminate enemies of the Dharma, magnetizing is specifically the ability to draw beings toward the Dharma itself: to attract students to a teacher, to open the hearts of those resistant to spiritual influence, to transform the energy of desire and attachment into a force that moves toward liberation rather than away from it. Kurukulla is the principal Tantric deity associated with this function. She originated in Oddiyana — the ancient northwest Indian region identified with the birthplace of Tantric transmission — and her practice is found in all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Though associated with the Tara lineage through her red form as one of the 21 Taras, she is a Dakini figure in her own right with her own distinct iconography, practice tradition, and sphere of activity.
Kurukulla Statue Features
Kurukulla is depicted with four arms in a dynamic dancing pose. Two of her hands draw back a flower bow and arrow — the signature implement of her magnetizing function, the flower weapons representing that attraction operates through beauty and desire transformed rather than force. Her third hand wields a goad (hook) over her right shoulder and her fourth holds a flower noose in her lower left — the goad drawing beings forward, the noose securing the connection. She wears a tiger skin around her waist and a crown of five skulls representing her mastery over the five aggregates (skandhas) — the psycho-physical components of conditioned existence — which she has reduced to skulls as a sign of complete transcendence. She has three eyes perceiving past, present, and future, and dances in a ring of flames within the oxidized mandorla of this statue’s two-tone presentation.
Authentic, Handmade in Nepal
Every statue and ritual item is handcrafted in Patan, Nepal, using traditional lost wax casting and comes with a certificate of authenticity issued by Nepal's Department of Archaeology, verifying its materials, technique, and origin.
