Vajravarahi, Dakini, Yogini Thangka Painting, Hand Painted Vajrayana Buddhist Art

In Vajrayana practice, Vajravarahi is the most renowned female meditational deity. In this Vajravarahi thangka painting, she holds up a vajra-handled curved flaying knife and a skull bowl. A garland of freshly severed heads hangs down almost to the ankle of her left leg. The right leg is bent and brought up to her inner thigh in a dancer's pose. 

Vajravarahi is beautiful, the most heavenly of all women.

But it is not her beauty that attracts.

Rather, it is her promise,

the potential of controlling the ego and its cravings,

that draws the practitioner.

Her relative beauty is but a metaphor

for that which is absolutely beautiful- the Void State. (shunyata)

The Vajravarahi, the diamond yogini, wears a crown of five skulls symbolizes Vajravarahi's power to transform the five negative afflictions.