Varada Mudra: The Gift-Giving Gesture in Tibetan Buddhism
Look at any seated Buddha and your eye lands on the hands before almost anything else. In Tibetan Buddhist art the hands speak. Each position, each mudra, is a sentence about what the figure is offering the world, and one of the most common sentences is this: the right hand extended, palm open and facing outward, fingers gently down. That is the varada mudra, the gesture of giving, of bestowing blessings, of answering the wish of anyone who asks.
The Sanskrit name is varada-mudra, the gesture of the wish-granting gift. The Tibetans call it mChog-sbyin-gyi phyag-rgya, the mudra of supreme giving. It appears across the Buddhist world, on statues of Shakyamuni, on the Green Tara whose open hand is her whole personality, and on the thousand arms of Avalokiteshvara. This guide unpacks what the gesture is, what it says, and where it lives in the art you can still hold.
What the Varada Mudra Is
In its classic form the varada mudra is made with the arm extended downward, the palm turned outward, and the fingers pointing toward the ground or slightly forward. The hand is open, never clenched, never withdrawn. Sometimes the palm carries a small mark, a wheel or a jewel, and in later tantric images a wish-fulfilling gem may rest in the open hand. The gesture appears most often on the right hand, balanced against a teaching gesture on the left.
The openness is the meaning. A closed fist receives nothing and gives nothing; an open palm is both an offering and an invitation. The downward angle matters too: it reaches toward the supplicant, toward the beings below, rather than reaching upward in petition. Varada is the mudra of one who has something to give and gives it without holding back.
What It Means: Giving and Fulfilling
Two ideas fold into the gesture. The first is generosity, dana, the perfection of giving that appears first in the list of the bodhisattva's perfections. The open hand says that the awakened one gives without reserve: teaching, protection, and the example of a life not ruled by grasping. The second idea is the granting of wishes. In Buddhist art the varada mudra is often called wish-granting because it is the gesture of a being whose very presence answers prayers, whose open palm is the sign that the request has been heard.
These two readings are really one. The awakened being has nothing to lose, so giving costs nothing, and because nothing is withheld, every wish is answered. The gesture is the outer sign of the inner state of the bodhisattva, one who has let go so completely that the world can take freely from the open hand.
The right hand forms the Varada Mudra, with an eye in the palm (right).
Giving in Buddhist Practice
Generosity is the first of the six perfections because it is the easiest door to walk through and the one every other practice leans on. You do not have to be enlightened to give, and every act of giving, a coin, a meal, a moment of attention, loosens the grip of grasping a little. The varada mudra is that act raised to a permanent posture: the body itself becomes an open hand.
Tibetan practice builds on this. Offerings are made before meditation, to loosen the mind's hold on things. Giving is trained through the practice of the mandala offering and through the everyday habit of dedicating merit. The mudra is the icon of all of it, a reminder that the path moves in the direction of the open hand, not the closed fist.
Where the Gesture Appears
The varada mudra is everywhere once you start looking. Shakyamuni Buddha often shows it on his right hand, the hand of blessing, paired with the earth-touching gesture or the meditation posture. The Green Tara is the classic bearer of the gesture, her right hand extended in giving while her left holds the lotus of pure awakening. White Tara, Avalokiteshvara, and countless bodhisattva figures repeat the same open palm, and in thangkas the gesture is a reliable way to read a figure's promise to the viewer.
The mudra is not confined to painting and bronze. It appears on amulets and pendants of Shakyamuni and Tara, on tsa tsa molds pressed from clay, and on small brass statues meant for the home altar. Wherever the hand is open, the same sentence is being spoken, in material from gold to yak bone.
Reading Hands in Buddhist Art
The varada mudra does not work alone. Buddhist figures speak with both hands, and the pair forms a complete statement. The earth-touching mudra calls the earth to witness the moment of awakening; the meditation mudra holds the mind in equipoise; the teaching mudra turns the wheel of the Dharma; and the varada mudra gives. On many statues the left hand holds a bowl or a lotus while the right gives, a pairing that says the figure has something and is giving it away at the same time.
Learning to read these hands changes how you see a statue. A Buddha is not a still object but a figure mid-conversation, and the mudras are the sentences. Once you know that the open right hand is the gesture of giving, every image with that hand becomes an image of generosity addressed to you.
Bringing the Gesture Close
You can carry the varada mudra without becoming an iconographer. A pendant or amulet of Shakyamuni, whose right hand makes the gesture in miniature, keeps the reminder at the heart. A Green Tara figure, her hand open in giving, is the classic piece for a home altar if generosity is the quality you want near. A tsa tsa mold or small statue of the Buddha in the giving posture turns a shelf into a daily prompt toward an open hand.
Or you can practice the mudra itself. Sit for a moment with one hand open on your knee, palm up, fingers relaxed, and let the posture teach you what giving feels like in the body. The gesture does not belong only to statues. It belongs to anyone practicing generosity, which is to say, to anyone walking the path.
📚 The Mudras of Tibetan Buddhist Art — a 14-part series
- Tibetan Buddhist Mudras: The Complete Guide — overview of all thirteen gestures (start here)
- Varada Mudra — the gift-giving gesture / granting wishes — you are here
- Abhaya Mudra — the gesture of fearlessness and protection
- Sharanagamana Mudra — the gesture that grants refuge
- Bhumisparsha Mudra — the earth-touching gesture
- Dharmachakra Mudra — the gesture of turning the wheel of the Dharma
- Bodhyangi Mudra — the gesture of supreme enlightenment
- Dhyana Mudra — the meditation gesture
- Anjali Mudra — the joined-palms gesture of reverence
- Humkara Mudra — the gesture of the one who makes HUM / conqueror of the three worlds
- Bhutadamara Mudra — the gesture that subdues spirits
- Tarjani Mudra — the raised threatening index finger
- Mandala Mudra — the gesture of offering the universe
- Cunda Mudra — the gesture of the goddess Cunda
You are reading: Varada Mudra (1 of 13).
Conclusion & Collecting Guide
The varada mudra is the gift-giving gesture of Tibetan Buddhist art: the right hand extended, palm open, reaching down in generosity and the granting of wishes. It is the signature of the Green Tara, a common blessing hand of Shakyamuni, and the visible sign of the bodhisattva's open-handed life. Below are a few pieces that carry the giving gesture, in bronze, bone, and paint, close at hand.
Series navigation: Tibetan Buddhist Mudras: The Complete Guide · Previous: none — this is the first gesture in the series · Next: Abhaya Mudra
If the giving hand is the detail that caught your eye, the same gesture is the subject of the whole series — from the fearlessness of the abhaya mudra to the joined palms of the anjali mudra. For pieces that carry the gesture, browse Tibetan amulets as well as the Tibetan thangka collection.
Further reading: background drawn from Wikipedia — see Varadamudra and Mudra. For authoritative iconography consult Robert Beer, The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs.