The Buddhist Deity Green Tara

One of the most important aspects of Lightning Vehicle thought is its emphasis on female imagery. Each Buddha has a specific female counterpart called a "wisdom" (prajna). Green Tara personifies compassion in action, and she is coded green like her male counterpart Amoghasiddhi. Her right arm is extended in the gesture of gift giving, while her right foot virtually steps out of the tapestry.

This tapestry comes from the lost kingdom of Xixia, in northwest China. When the kingdom was destroyed by the Mongols in 1227, the people of Xixia managed to hide some of their treasures in a stupa—a monument enshrining the sacred remains of enlightened beings—which survived intact until Russian archaeologists excavated the site in the twentieth century. Today, the bulk of the material from the lost kingdom of Xixia lies in the State Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, Russia.