Item: Yogambara (Buddhist Deity) - (Three Faces, Six Arms)

Yogambara, a tutelary deity belonging to the Wisdom-mother class of Anuttarayoga tantra, made famous in the Vajravali text of the Indian Pandita Abhayakaragupta.

(***The iconography does not follow the textual descriptions for Yogambara).

Semi-wrathful in appearance, dark blue in colour, he has three faces, blue, white and red. The main pair of hands holds a vajra and bell in a gesture of embrace. The second right caresses the breast of the consort Jnana Dakini. The third holds aloft an arrow. The second left holds a white skullcup and the third upraised a bow. Seated in vajra posture atop a sun disc, lotus and a white snow lion, he is surrounded by a red-orange nimbus.

The deity Yogambara arises from the Chaturpita Tantra and is typically surrounded by a 77 deity mandala. The practice was popularized in Tibet by Marpa the Translator and his student Ngog Lotsawa.

Jeff Watt 7-2003