The seated posture (vajraparyankasana) with the right hand extended in a gesture of generosity (varada mudra) and the raised left hand holding the stem of an utpala flower identify the goddess as White Tara, worshipped by Buddhists as bestower of longevity.  The lustrous gilt-copper image is inlaid with silver to enhance the eyes, urna, a string of pearls at her neck, and the broad bangles at her wrists, and large settings are mounted with turquoise in the armbands, crown, necklace pendant, and flowers at the shoulder.  The eastern Indian tradition of embellishing gilt-copper statues with silver inlay and inset colored stones was conceived during the Pala period; compare the extensive silver inlay and inset gems on the gilt-copper Lokanatha in the Patna Museum.  Copper is used throughout India for cast images that are designed to be fire-gilded, in contrast to the bronze or brass normally used in non-gilt figures.

The circular rim of the statue would have been fixed into a separately-cast lotus base like the Pala gilt-copper Akshobhya in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (which is cast in four parts: statue, lotus, lower pedestal, and prabha).  The minor flattening of the rim at the front and back and the slight indentations along the rim at the front probably occurred during the original joining of the statue to its lotus base, which would have required some degree of hammering to firmly secure the two parts.

Traces of blue pigment in the hair suggest the Tara has been in Tibetan worship.  The bronze may have been taken to Tibet in the medieval period, either by pilgrims as a relic or for safekeeping during foreign Islamic incursions in India during the twelfth century.

Compare the robust modelling and the simple circular textile motif of three eastern Indian gilt-copper statues, including the Vairocana in the Zimmerman Collection and the Akshobhya in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (both ascribed a tenth century date) and the Padmapani in the Rietberg Museum (attributed to the eleventh century).  This rare and beautiful Pala Tara may thus be similarly dated to the tenth or eleventh centuries.