Tara

Like Dún Ailinne in Leinster, Cruachain (Rathcroghan) in Connacht, and Emain Macha (Navan) in Ulster, Tara (Old Irish Temair), Co. Meath (ancient Midhe), is one of the preeminent "royal sites" in Ireland. Today Tara is composed of a set of earthworks scattered almost 3,000 feet along a ridge rising to a maximum of about 430 feet above sea level. Some monuments are well preserved while others have long since disappeared, now being recognizable only from the air (Raftery 1991). The often fanciful names derive from an early eleventh-century text.

Dominating the ridge is a large enclosure, about fourteen and a half acres in size, known as Rath na Ríogh (Fort of the Kings), containing several notable monuments. An earthen rampart with an internal ditch surrounds it; this is a feature also found at Emain Macha and Dún Ailinne. Excavations in the 1950s revealed that the ditch was formed from a careful V-section cut ten feet into the bedrock. "Along its immediate inner edge was found a vertical-sided trench which must once have supported the timbers of a substantial palisade" (Raftery 1991).

Inside the enclosure is located Dumha na nGiall (the Mound of the Hostages), a Neolithic passage grave (ca. 3000–2500 b.c.e.). The tomb (about 13 feet × 3 feet) was subdivided into three compartments that originally contained the cremated remains of the dead along with their grave goods. Two adjacent structures, teach Cormaic (Cormac's house) and forradh (the royal seat), a pair of conjoined, high earthen banks with raised, flattened interiors, are of unknown date and purpose (Raftery 1991). The standing stone known as Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny), erected on Teach Cormaic around 1824 to honor those who died in the 1798 skirmish at Tara, may once have stood in front of the entrance to the passage grave and may be contemporary with the tomb. According to medieval Irish tradition, when the rightful heir to the kingship sat on Lia Fáil, the stone would shriek.

More mounds and enclosures are found north and south of the Fort of the Kings. These include Rath na Seanaid (Rath of the Synods), a triple-ringed earthwork badly damaged in the early twentieth century by British Israelites who thought they would find the Ark of the Covenant there (Harbison 1979). Later excavations indicate that Rath na Seanaid was inhabited and used as a burial site at various times, including the first to fourth century c.e., as indicated by the discovery of Roman pottery, glass, and other items. About 245 feet north of the Rath is Teach Miodhchuarta (the Banqueting Hall), a pair of straight, parallel banks that are about 100 feet apart, extending down the slope for about 590 feet (Raftery 1991). Medieval writers viewed this as a large roofed structure; a detailed description of the seating arrangement is found in the twelfth-century Book of Leinster.

Clearly identified in ancient times as the "capital" of the kingdom of Brega, Tara later gained fame as the inauguration site of the High Kings of Ireland, generally members of the Uí Néill dynasty, though they did not actually reside there. Its cultural significance even in modern times is demonstrated by the fact that Daniel O'Connell held a "monster meeting" on the Hill of Tara in 1843 to reinforce his demand for repeal of the Act of Union.

SEE ALSO Cruachain; Dún Ailinne; Emain Macha (Navan Fort); Prehistoric and Celtic Ireland

Bibliography

Harbison, Peter. Guide to the National Monuments in the Republic of Ireland. 1979.

Macalister, R. A. S. Tara: A Pagan Sanctuary of Ancient Ireland. 1931.

Ó Ríordáin, S. P. Tara: The Monument on the Hill. 1971.

Raftery, Barry. "Tara, County Meath." In V. Kruta, et al. The Celts. 1991.

Swan, D. L. "The Hill of Tara, County Meath: The Evidence of Aerial Photography." Society of the Antiquarians of Ireland 108 (1978): 51–66.

James E. Doan

Tārā (Skt. ‘Star’, Tib. sgrol.ma or drolma ‘She who saves’; possibly from Skt., tārayati, ‘crossing, transcending’). Tibet's most important deity. She is a bodhisattva who for many Tibetans has already become a Buddha, having vowed—on being advised of the spiritual advantages of male rebirth—never to relinquish her female form. Tārā has the epithet ‘mother of all the Buddhas’, and is viewed with great affection by Tibetans. Originally she was a Tantric deity, prominent in 7th-cent. tantras. By the 8th cent. her cult was established at Borobodur in Java, in itself showing the early extent of Tantric influence. Although her appearance in Tibet has been noted as 8th cent., it was not until the arrival of Atiśa in 1042 that worship of Tārā became widespread.

Tibetan Buddhism recognizes twenty-one Tārās, according to the definitive text on her worship, Homages to the Twenty One Tārās, brought from India by Darmadra in the 11th cent. Each Tārā has a different function (averting disasters, wish-fulfilling, increasing wisdom, healing, etc.), each has a particular colour, mudrā, and mantra, and each emanates from Green Tārā as source. After the mantra of Chenrezi (om maṇi padme hum), the mantra of Tārā (om tāre tuttāre ture svāhā) is the most commonly heard on the lips of the Tibetan people.

Tara a hill in County Meath in the Republic of Ireland, site in early times of the residence of the high kings of Ireland and still marked by ancient earthworks.

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