Palden Lhamo — “the Glorious Goddess” — is the great wrathful protectress of Tibetan Buddhism: the only female among the Eight Great Dharmapalas, a fierce dark deity who rides a mule across a sea of blood, the supreme guardian of Tibet, of the Dalai Lamas, and of the holy city of Lhasa. She is the most important of the protective goddesses, terrible in aspect yet wholly devoted to the defense of the dharma.
The Glorious Goddess
Palden Lhamo (Sanskrit Shri Devi) is depicted as a fearsome dark-blue wrathful goddess, riding side-saddle upon a mule across a sea of blood, wreathed in flames, with a third eye, fangs, and a terrible expression, wielding a club or sword and a skull-cup, with a host of fierce attributes — a saddle-blanket made from the flayed skin of her own son, a bag of diseases, dice for divining the fates of beings, and serpents and skulls adorning her. Each terrible detail is symbolic of her power and her grim devotion to the protection of the teaching.
The Slayer of Her Own Son
Palden Lhamo’s most striking myth concerns the flayed skin she rides upon. By tradition, she had married the king of a demonic, dharma-hostile land and borne him a son, hoping to turn the kingdom toward the dharma; when she failed and the king raised the boy to destroy Buddhism, Palden Lhamo, in a terrible act of grim resolve, killed her own son and flayed him, using his skin as her saddle-blanket, and fled across the sea of blood — sacrificing even her child to the protection of the dharma. This dreadful deed expresses the absolute, uncompromising nature of her protective devotion.
The Guardian of Tibet and the Dalai Lamas
Palden Lhamo is the supreme protectress of Tibet, the special guardian of Lhasa, of the Dalai Lamas and the Gelug school, and of the Tibetan government and people. She is intimately connected with the sacred lake Lhamo La-tso, in whose waters visions are sought to find the reincarnations of the Dalai Lamas. Fierce, terrible, and utterly devoted, she is invoked as the great defender against all enemies of the dharma. In Palden Lhamo, Tibetan Buddhism gave form to the fierce protective feminine — the Glorious Goddess riding her mule across the sea of blood, the only goddess among the great protectors, who sacrificed even her own son for the dharma and stands as the supreme guardian of Tibet and the Dalai Lamas.