Female Deities: List of female Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

Prajnaparamita

Guru figure and yidam - Mother of all the Buddhas

Prajnaparamita embodies the bliss/emptiness that gives rise to all phenomena - hence her title as Mother of all the Buddhas.

She usually appears as a tranquil seated figure clothed in silks; her body is gold in colour, and she has one face and four arms. Her first two arms are held in meditation posture in her lap, while the other right hand holds a vajra (thunderbolt sceptre symbolising compassion and bliss) and the left, the text of the Heart Sutra which is the essential wisdom-text on the emptiness of phenomena. (There are other forms of the deity, as at right: first two hands in prayer mudra at the heart, second right hand holding a mala [rosary] and second left hand holding a text.)

Her name means 'Perfection of Wisdom'; in Tibetan she is also known as Yum Chenmo, or 'Great Mother'. She is closely associated with chöd practice (see Machig Labdrön).