Pendant of Palden Lhamo, The Only Female Guardian Among the Eight

This is Pendant of LHAMO BUDDHIST PROTECTION PENDANT, handcrafted in Kathmandu. In Tibetan Buddhism, there are eight great protector deities known as the Dharmapalas. They appear fierce and wrathful, but don't let their frightening faces fool you - they are teachers at heart. Their terrifying forms exist to drive away evil and shake people awake, to remind us that we have a practice to tend to. They also carry a deeper lesson: that even our darkest emotions and most destructive energies can be turned toward something good.

Palden Lhamo was once married to a king - a cruel man who oppressed his own people and worked against the dharma. She made a vow: she would either change him, or she would end his reign. She tried. She failed. And as time passed, she watched her own son grow up to follow the same path, threatening to carry his father's legacy of harm into the next generation.
Faced with an impossible choice, she chose the harder road. She ended the dynasty herself, for the sake of everyone it was destroying.

The weight of that act followed her. She was cast into a hell realm, carrying her grief and guilt with her. In time, she found her way back to Earth - but peace eluded her. She wandered, purposeless, until the Buddha himself came to her. He didn't condemn her. He gave her a calling. He asked her to become a Dharmapala, a protector of the dharma, and in doing so gave her suffering a meaning.

Material: Clear Crystal and Hemp
Size of Pendant: 1.5" wide. 2.2" tall.
Weight: 45 grams approx.