The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 8, 2025

A large, colorful cloth depicting a female deity with green skin sitting on a lotus throne under an arch, surrounded by animals and trees. She is wearing jewelry and has curly black hair. Her right hand is down while her left hand is up, the tip of her fourth finger touching the tip of her thumb.

Green Tara

c. 1260s

Central Tibet

thangka; gum tempera, ink, and gold on sized cotton
Painting: 52.4 x 43.2 cm (20 5/8 x 17 in.); Overall: 107 x 65 cm (42 1/8 x 25 9/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund by exchange 1970.156
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The tiny monastic figure under Green Tara's right hand commissioned the painting.

Description

For Tibetans, Green Tara is one of the preeminent figures of their Buddhist faith, a radiant savioress who embodies the female form of the perfect, enlightened mind. The Green Tara in the Cleveland thangka—a Tibetan devotional painting on cloth—specifically dispels fear and provides protection, just like her mantra inscribed on the back side of the painting. Her green color and fear-not gesture link her to the cosmic Buddha of the North, enshrined above her head. Most scholars agree that this work was painted by the celebrated Nepalese artist known as Aniko.
  • 1970–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1970." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 2 (1971): 22–71. Mentioned: no. 70, p. 157 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 297 archive.org
    Orientations, vol. 20, October 1989. Reproduced: cover and fig. 17, p. 42
    Rhie, Marylin M., and Robert A. F. Thurman. Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991. Reproduced: fig. 14, p. 51
    Singer, Jane Casey. "Early Tankas: Eleventh-Thirteenth Centuries," Marg: A Magazine of the Arts (Sept. 1996), pp. 28–29. Reproduced: fig. 11
    Fisher, Robert E. Art of Tibet. London; New York: Thames & Hudson, 1997. Reproduced: fig. 112, pp. 134–135
    Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 158–159
    Kossak, Steven, Jane Casey Singer, and Robert Bruce-Gardner. Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: no. 37, pp. 144–146 libmma.contentdm.oclc.org
    Kossak, Steven, Jane Casey Singer, Robert Bruce-Gardner, and Michael Henss. Geheime Visionen: frühe Malerei aus Zentraltibet [=Sacred visions : early paintings from Central Tibet]. Zürich: Museum Rietberg, 1999. Reproduced: cat. no. 37, pp. 144–146
    May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 101, pp. 91, 119
    Blezer, Henk and John Ardussi, eds. Impressions of Bhutan and Tibetan Art: Tibetan Studies III. Leiden: Brill, 2002. Reproduced: pl. 42
    Czuma, Stanislaw, "Great Acquisitions and Southeast Asian Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art," Orientations (Jan/Feb 2005), vol. 36, no. 1. Reproduced: pp. 86–87
    Jackson, David Paul, and Christian Luczanits. Mirror of the Buddha: Early Portraits from Tibet: from the Masterworks of Tibetan Painting Series. New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2011. Reproduced: p 12, fig 1.8
    Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Reproduced: pp. 104–105
    “A Walking Tour: The entire new museum wing by wing, with curators calling out a few favorite works in the collection.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 1 (January/February 2014): 8–33. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 31 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 33
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterworks on Loan: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Cleveland Museum of Art: April through June 2016. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Reproduced: p. 22
    "Stories from Storage." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries 24, i. 5 (May 2021): 6–7. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 6–7
    Mace, Sonya Rhie. “Asian Art: Green Tara and the Art of Protection.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 24. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 24 archive.org
    Campbell, Aurelia. "Consecrating the Imperial City: Tibetan Stupas in Yuan Dadu." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 51 (2022): 207-243, plates 252-255 Mentioned: p. 233, fig. 11; Reproduced: p. 253
  • Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
    Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 237). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (April 4-November 7, 2016).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 239). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 18, 2013-June 30, 2014).
    Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009).
    Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (October 5, 1998-January 17, 1999); Museum Rietberg, Zürich (February 14-May 16, 1999).
    Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).
    Year in Review: 1970. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-March 7, 1971).
  • {{cite web|title=Green Tara|url=false|author=|year=c. 1260s|access-date=08 November 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1970.156