Dakini

Dakinis reveal how one of awakening’s many aspects is the unbridled energy of transcendent passion. Her leg effortlessly splayed in a nearly impossible position, head cocked skyward, and hair streaming down her back, this dakini is enlightenment’s ecstasy embodied. Historically, dakinis were likely female practitioners of yoga who inhabited such liminal locations as cemeteries; they appear in just such locations on many early thangka paintings, as similarly fierce female guardians appear in the corners of our mandala painting.