Tashi Tseringma, the 'Auspicious Lady of Long Life', is the eldest and chief of the Five Long-Life Sisters (Tshe ring mched lnga), pre-Buddhist goddesses of the high Himalayan peaks on the Tibet-Nepal border; her own seat is the mountain Jomo Tseringma (Gauri Shankar). Tradition holds that Padmasambhava first bound the sisters by oath, and the biographical song-cycle of Milarepa devotes several chapters to their assaults on, conversion by, and teachings received from the eleventh-century yogin, after which Tseringma became a special protectress of the Kagyu school. She is depicted as a beautiful white goddess riding a white snow lion, holding a golden vajra and a vase of long life, and is invoked for longevity, health and prosperity; her four sisters ride a wild ass, a tigress, a doe and a dragon in her retinue.