Solid and luxurious, White Tara's nature is to offer peace, prosperity, long life, health, and good fortune. She is believed to protect human beings while they are crossing the ocean of existance. Her body is seen by the practitioner as being as dazzling white as a thousand autumn moons. She has a third eye on her forehead, symbolizing her direct vision of the unity of ultimate reality simultaneous with her two eyes seeing the dualistic relative world of beings. She is often depicted with extra eyes on her palms, symbolizing that her generosity is always accompanied by perfect wisdom, and a lotus flower at one or both of her shoulders.

White Tara is regarded as consort of Avalokiteshvara, and sometimes of Vairochana. She is portrayed usually seated, dressed and crowned like a bodhisattva, although sometimes White Tara is portrayed in a standing, dancing position. 

In Tibet, White Tara is associated with the 7th-century Tang princess Wen Cheng, the wife of King Songtsen Gambo, who brought the famous Jowo statue of Shakyamuni to Tibet and was instrumental in constructing the Jokhang, the great temple in Lhasa.