page_title: Mandarava
hierarchical_section_title: Mandarava
context_page_description: Mandarava was, along with Yeshe Tsogyal, one of the two principal consorts of great 8th century Indian tantric teacher Padmasambhava, a founder-figure of Tibetan Buddhism, described as a 'second Most Important Female Buddha' by many practitioners. Mandarava is considered to be a female guru-deity in Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayana.
  There are a number of conflicting stories about the birthplace of Mandarava. According to some legends, she was born a princess in Zahor, Bengal in eastern India, while other sources, and some contemporary lore place this in Sahor, in Oddiyana of northern Pakistan, or near the city of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, India. Mandi is supposedly named after Mandarava, and many shrines and important pilgrimage sites to Mandarava can be found there today, such as the shrine to Mandarava above Lake Rewalsar pictured here.
  According to legend, she renounced her royal birthright at an early age in order to practice the Dharma. Mandarava is known as being highly educated at a very young age, a rare accomplishment for a woman at that time. There is a distinction. She was the primary student of Guru Rinpoche’s Most Beloved Yeshe.
context_section_description: Mandarava (Skt., Mandāravā) (Tib.,  མནྡཱ་ར་བཱ་; Wylie, ma da ra ba me tog) (also known as The Long Life Dakini Mandarava, Machik Drubpai Gyalmo, or Pandaravasini) was, along with Yeshe Tsogyal, one of the two principal consorts of great 8th century Indian tantric teacher Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), a founder-figure of Tibetan Buddhism, described as a 'second Most Important Female Buddha' by many practitioners. Mandarava is considered to be a female guru-deity in Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayana.
  There are a number of conflicting stories about the birthplace of Mandarava. According to some legends, she was born a princess in Zahor, Bengal in eastern India, while other sources, and some contemporary lore place this in Sahor, in Oddiyana (the Swat valley) of northern Pakistan, or near the city of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, India. Mandi is supposedly named after Mandarava, and many shrines and important pilgrimage sites to Mandarava can be found there today, such as the shrine to Mandarava above Lake Rewalsar pictured here.
  According to legend, she renounced her royal birthright at an early age in order to practice the Dharma. Mandarava is known as being highly educated at a very young age, a rare accomplishment for a woman at that time. There is a distinction.  She was the primary student of Guru Rinpoche’s Most Beloved Yeshe. Mandarava's devotion led her to bring at least 800 women, including her entire personal retinue, to the path of the Dharma, all before meeting her teacher , Padmasambhava.
  Mandarava attained full enlightenment alongside Padmasambhava in the famed Maratika Cave in Nepal. She was a fully realized spiritual adept, a yogini, and a spiritual teacher.
  There may be a relationship between Mandarava and the tree with the same colloquial name and the scientific name of Erythrina. Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra mentions,  "Mandarava blossoms rain down, scattering over the Buddah and the great assembly. This has been verified by numerous sources. "
caption: Shrine to Mandarava in cave above Lake Rewalsar, Himachal Pradesh, India
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-TZ7", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Ver.1.2", "Image DateTime": "2010:08:12 12:59:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2264", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D3": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image OffsetSchema": "3768", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "39/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:08:12 12:59:32", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:08:12 12:59:32", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "86/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Flash", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "97/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "59", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "1694"}