Parnashavari: The Tibetan Goddess of Medicine

Within the complex symbolism of Tibetan deities and protectors, I like to look for distinctive details that allow us to identify a figure the moment we see them in a temple. One of the goddesses who makes this task especially easy is Parnashavari—an ancient Indian deity who arrived in Tibet with Buddhism. She is known as Loma-gyönma in Tibetan and as the “Leaf-Clad Mother Buddha” in Chinese.

A Skirt of Leaves

In many depictions she does not actually wear a full leaf dress, but rather a skirt made of leaves—thin leaves that look more like those of a shrub than the large ones of certain trees. The rest of her body is usually uncovered. The leaves symbolize the medicinal plants she knows, for she is venerated as a protective deity capable of curing illnesses, plagues, and epidemics. They also connect her to nature, showing that her healing power arises from natural knowledge.

Although she rarely occupies a central position, her image—painted or sculpted—is extremely common in temples and monasteries, where large communities of monks live together and epidemics can spread quickly. To request her protection, devotees recite her mantra, asking for healing, for the prevention of disease, and for the purification of the space they inhabit. In some regions of Tibet it was said that monasteries with many monks recited her mantra at dawn to protect themselves from epidemics, especially in places where many people lived in close quarters.

Her ability to effect physical healing extends also to spiritual suffering, and many devotees seek comfort from their sorrows in her. For this reason her cult is sometimes associated or even confused with that of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, calling her the “Leaf-Clad Guanyin” (Guanyin being the Chinese name of Avalokiteshvara).

Iconography

She usually appears with three faces and six arms (though many sculptures show her with only two). Each face is fierce, showing fangs, and she bears a third eye, which allows her to perceive the truth behind appearances and to detect hidden dangers that escape normal vision—a particularly important quality in a goddess who protects against epidemics. In her hands she may hold a vajra (which breaks through darkness and ignorance), a lasso, and sometimes medicinal herbs.

Her most distinctive feature is her small leaf skirt, which is what allows us to identify her immediately; from there we can look for her other attributes. Sometimes she also wears a leaf garland around her neck or a kind of shawl made of leaves.

In the Kumbum Stupa of Gyantse

This image comes from a sculpture in the Kumbum Stupa at Gyantse’s Palkor Temple, a magnificent stupa with 76 chapels (sometimes symbolically said to be 108, a sacred number for Tibetans) decorated with ancient paintings and sculptures. One of these chapels is dedicated to this goddess.

Why is the number 108 sacred?

In ancient India, the number was understood symbolically:
1 represents the absolute, prior to any division;
0 represents emptiness or non-existence;
from 0 arises 8, which in Buddhism refers to the Noble Eightfold Path leading to enlightenment.

All things emerge from this philosophical sequence. Thus when one speaks of “108 gods,” it means “all the gods”; when one speaks of “108 experiences,” it refers to all possible experiences that can be known.

If you are interested in these topics, you might enjoy the following books by the same author (in Spanish):

Leyendas de la diosa madre: y otros mitos de diosas y mujeres de los pueblos de China

El matriarcado en China. Madres, diosas, reinas y chamanes