This 18.5″ Khadiravani Tara statue is fully fire gilded in 24K gold, with turquoise and red coral stones embedded throughout the crown, jewels, and robe as part of the finished piece. The face is painted in real gold — not simply gold pigment over a standard surface, but a technique that produces an ambient luster distinctly warmer than standard face painting. The statue was handcrafted in Patan, Nepal by a master Newar artisan using the traditional lost wax sculpting method, with intricate hand-carved engravings on the robe, crown, and jewels rendered at a level of detail that the larger 18.5″ format makes fully visible. This is the fully gilded version of the Khadiravani form — the same iconographic tradition as our partly gilded Khadiravani statue, presented here at the highest level of gilded finish.
Khadiravani Tara — Tara of the Khadira Acacia Forest — is known in the Tara tradition as the “Mother of Liberation,” a designation that reflects not only her protective function but the depth of her realization. She possesses the profound knowledge of emptiness (shunyata) — the direct insight into the ultimate nature of phenomena that is the heart of Mahayana Buddhist wisdom — and it is from that ground of understanding that her compassionate activity arises. Tara does not protect from a position of power over fear; she protects from a position of having seen through the nature of fear entirely. Read more about the Green Tara mantra and practice in our complete Tara statues guide.
Khadiravani Tara’s Mudras
Her right hand displays the Varada mudra — the boon-granting or gift-giving gesture, palm open and facing forward toward devotees — with a vajra symbol engraved in the open palm, a distinctive iconographic feature of the Khadiravani form. The vajra in the palm of the giving gesture combines the qualities of indestructible compassion (vajra) with the active offering of blessings (Varada) — a specific expression of the Khadiravani tradition’s emphasis on the union of power and generosity. Her left hand holds the stem of the utpala lotus between thumb and ring finger, the stem rising to the fully open blossom over her right shoulder — symbolizing the purity and completeness of enlightenment fully realized. Her left hand simultaneously holds the stem of a second lotus, its blossom unopened over her right shoulder — symbolizing the fruits of enlightenment that await devotees on the path.
Khadiravani Tara’s Posture
Khadiravani Tara is seated in lalitasana — her left leg drawn in toward the body in meditative contemplation, her right leg partially extended in readiness to rise. These two aspects of the posture are understood as simultaneous rather than in tension: the meditative absorption of the left leg is the source of her wisdom and power, and the extended right leg is the expression of that wisdom as immediate, responsive compassion. She is both absorbed and ready — the two qualities that define an enlightened being’s relationship to the world.
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.
