Tara Tantrra
Created | Updated Nov 14, 2002
The story of Tara's origin.
Tara's origin, according to the Tara Tantra,
recounts that aeons ago she was born as a king's daughter.
A spiritual and compassionate princess,
she regularly gave offerings and prayers to the ordained monks and nuns.
She thus developed great merit, and the monks told her that,
because of her spiritual attainments,
they would pray that she be reborn as a man and spread Buddhist teachings.
She responded that there was no male and no female,
that nothing existed in reality,
and that she wished to remain in female form to serve other beings
until everyone reached enlightenment,
hence implying the shortfall in the monk's knowledge
in presuming only male preachers for the Buddhist religion.
Thus Tara might be considered one of the earliest feminists.