Five Sisters of Long Life 長壽五天女

Five Sisters of Long Life (Tib. ཚེ་རིང་མཆེད་ལྔ་ , Wyl. tshe ring mched lnga) are guardians who pledged to protect the teachings. They are:-

1. Tashi Tseringma, (Tib. བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཚེ་རིང་མ་ , Wyl. bkra shis tshe ring ma)
2. Ting gi Shyal Zangma, (Tib. མཐིང་གི་ཞལ་བཟང་མ་ , Wyl. mthing gi zhal bzang ma)
3. Chöpen Drin Zangma, (Tib. ཅོད་པན་མགྲིན་བཟང་མ་ , Wyl. cod pan mgrin bzang ma)
4. Miyo Lang Zangma, (Tib. མི་གཡོ་གླང་བཟང་མ་ , Wyl. mi g.yo glang bzang ma) and
5. Talkar Dro Zangma, (Tib. གཏལ་དཀར་འགྲོ་བཟང་མ་ , Wyl. gtal dkar ‘gro bzang ma).

In some traditions they are depicted as riding on animals but in the Longchen Nyingtikterma tradition they are depicted in standing posture holding various accoutrements.

1. Tashi Tseringma – riding a snow lion
2. Ting gi Shyal Zangma – riding a wild ass
3. Chöpen Drin Zangma – riding a stag
4. Miyo Lang Zangma – riding a tiger
5. Talkar Dro Zangma - riding a dragon

Longchen Nyingtik terma tradition

1. Tashi Tseringma - holding an arrow and a dice
2. Ting gi Shyal Zangma - holding a divination mirror
3. Chöpen Drin Zangma - holding a treasure vase
4. Miyo Lang Zangma - holding a tray of wealth and riches
5. Talkar Dro Zangma - holding a silver ladle of milk

External Links

• The Five Long-life Sisters
• Tseringma with her four sisters. Iconography from the Longchen Nyingtik cycle of terma teachings.