19 Facts About Mandarava

Mandarava is considered to be a female guru-deity in Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayana.

Mandarava is known as being highly educated at a very young age, a rare accomplishment for a woman at that time.

Mandarava was the primary student of Guru Rinpoche's Most Beloved Yeshe.

Mandarava's devotion led her to bring at least 800 women, including her entire personal retinue, to the path of the Dharma, all before meeting her teacher, Padmasambhava.

Mandarava attained full enlightenment alongside Padmasambhava in the famed Maratika Cave in Nepal.

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Mandarava was a fully realized spiritual adept, a yogini, and a spiritual teacher.

Mandarava's birth was said to be accompanied by miraculous signs and her renunciation and spiritual inclination were apparent at an early age.

Mandarava preferred to pursue her spiritual calling rather than marry.

At this point, recognizing her seriousness, Mandarava's father sends all suitors away and Mandarava takes both ordination vows and bodhisattva vows.

Mandarava's father was fearful of the contamination of the royal bloodline and what he perceived as Mandarava's apostasy.

Mandarava realized her calling to spread the Dharma with Padmasambhava, thereby fulfilling the prediction of her birth that she was a dakini.

Mandarava is said to have manifested her sambhogakaya form at the great Dharma Wheel of Tramdruk where she engaged in a dialogue of mantra and mudra with Padmasambhava.

Summary of Mandarava's life, based on The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava, can be found on The Treasury of Lives website.

Mandarava is often depicted adorned with banners and a melong which is another ritual implement, teaching tool and polyvalent symbol of Dzogchen representing the clear, reflective and void nature of mind.

Mandarava's left hand often holds a bumpa or long-life vase or wisdom urn of the ashtamangala.

Rarer depictions of Mandarava include her holding the dadar in her right hand and a ritual skull cup.

Mandarava is usually depicted in a standing pose, yet there are some depictions of her seated, and occasional depictions of Mandarava in an energetic dance, with her right leg raised, denoting her enlightened activity and dakini nature.

When depicted with Padmasambhava, Mandarava is often iconographically represented on his right side while Yeshe Tsogyal will be on his left.

Teachings and spiritual practices arising from Mandarava are being practiced today by a variety of lineages and Buddhist organizations.