]> 2026-10-01T16:15:49-04:00 Niguma 0 en Nigupta ཡེ་ཤེས་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་; ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཌཱ་ཀི་མ་; ངེས་པར་སྦས་མ་; ye shes mkha' 'gro ma; ye shes kyi DA ki ma; nges par sbas ma; 47 Niguma was one of two great dakinis who founded the Shangpa Kagyu school of Vajrayana Buddhism. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, Niguma was one of the most important Buddhist teachers and yoginis in India. While there are only brief glimpses of her life from sources and texts, Sarah Harding’s Niguma: Lady of Illusion surveys what little literature there is surrounding “the heiress of unimaginable qualities.” Although not much is known about Niguma’s life, her teachings had a significant impact on Buddhism. Alongside the dakini Sukhasiddhi, she is one of two female founders of the Shangpa Kagyu school of Vajrayana Buddhism. Niguma developed esoteric instructions, treatises, and practice manuals. Within the collection of commentaries in the Tibetan Buddhist canon, called the Tengyur — part of the core of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition — seventeen texts are attributed to Niguma, though they were likely written by her student Khyungpo Naljor. Niguma is said to watch over the holders of the lineage with impartial compassion, blessing them and compassionately overseeing the success of their activity. Niguma’s birthplace was most likely near Kashmir, a hub of Buddhist tantric activity. She is thought by some to be the sister of Naropa, the famous Vajrayana Buddhist teacher, although others suggest that Niguma was Naropa’s consort. There is often confusion and overlap between the biographical details of Niguma and Naropa’s respective lives and accomplishments. Although it is difficult to identify the woman behind the mystery of Niguma’s dakini image, Tibetan master Taranatha (1575-1634) wrote a short biography that helps shine light on her story: The dakini Niguma’s place of birth was the Kashmiri city called “Incomparable.” Her father was the brahmin Santivarman. Her mother was Shrimati. Her real name was Srijnana. She had previously gathered the accumulations for three incalculable eons. Thus, in this life, based on the teachings of the instructions by the adept Lavapa and some others, she manifested the signs of progress in the secret mantra Vajrayana, and attained the body of union. So her body became a rainbow-like form. She had the ability to really hear teachings from the great Vajradhara. Having become a great bodhisattva, her emanations pervaded everywhere and accomplished the welfare of beings. Harding points out that Niguma’s life story consists of only six folios, while that of her student Khyungpo Naljor consists of forty-three. According to scholars, Niguma had high-level realization, attained rainbow body, and received teachings directly from Vajradhara — the tantric form of Shakyamuni Buddha. It is said that Niguma cultivated the Buddhist path in previous lives, so that in her lifetime she directly saw the truth of the nature of phenomena just by hearing basic instruction from a few adept masters. (Source: Buddhadharma Magazine, Spring 2024) Kashmir People File:Niguma.jpg true true true File:Niguma.jpg File:Niguma.jpg Niguma niguma ནི་གུ་མ་ ni gu ma Classical Indian Authors Shangpa Kagyu Niguma Abhayākara <strong class="error">Expression error: Unexpected number.</strong> Khyung po rnal 'byor;Thang stong rgyal po;Mar pa chos kyi blo gros 10th century 11th century 2025-06-13T19:40:01Z 2460840.319456 2025-06-13T19:40:01Z 2460840.319456 true Niguma 0 1 template 3 [[Category:Tibetan Collections]] [[WorkAuthor::Niguma]] Niguma# QUERY6a626e243ac4e37493fb709c458192ef 0 0 count 2 [[Category:Tibetan Texts]] [[Category:Niguma]] Niguma# QUERYc28441b7e23688388631b8cee626bce8 0 200 0 template 2 [[Category:Tibetan Texts]] [[Category:Niguma]] Niguma# QUERYe46080cc25c84f3a0166d5546a5b9b7e གཞི་ལམ་འབྲས་བུའི་རྣམ་གཞག། 0 en གཞི་ལམ་འབྲས་བུའི་རྣམ་གཞག། ཆོས་དྲུག་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་། 0 en ཆོས་དྲུག་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་། ནི་གུ་མའི་སྨོན་ལམ་བཀའ་རྒྱ་མ། 0 en ནི་གུ་མའི་སྨོན་ལམ་བཀའ་རྒྱ་མ། ཡལ་ག་འཆུགས་མེད་ལམ་ཁྱེར་རྣམ་གསུམ་གྱི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་། 0 en ཡལ་ག་འཆུགས་མེད་ལམ་ཁྱེར་རྣམ་གསུམ་གྱི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་། སེམས་འཆི་མེད་ཀྱི་རྩ་བ། 0 en སེམས་འཆི་མེད་ཀྱི་རྩ་བ། སྡོང་པོ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་གྭའུ་མའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་། 0 en སྡོང་པོ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་གྭའུ་མའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་། WorkAuthor 102 en WorkAuthor