Dancing Goddess Vajravarahi

The aspiration deity Vajravarahi, the Diamond Sow, derives her name from the sow’s heads protruding from the right side of her head. As an independent deity and as the consort of Chakrasamvara, she is one of the most important deities of early Tibetan Buddhism. Commonly the goddess is depicted with a curved knife in her raised right arm and a skull cup, now missing, in her left that also embraces a tantric staff. A garland of skulls around her neck intensifies her wrathful demeanor, as do the flames on the mandorla behind the image.