Stories of Previous Lives of the Buddha (Jataka)

0:00:04.9 Dr. Beth Harris: We are in the galleries at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, and we’re looking at a thangka. In the center, we can recognize an image of the Buddha, but if we look closely, we see five different scenes, stories around the Buddha.

0:00:20.3 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: This is a narrative painting that depicts five stories that are set in this landscape, but separated by various elements. Here on the top, we see the range of the mountains, which separates the story which begins on the top. On the other side of these mountains, we have another story which ends before a forest, and that forest is where the new story begins. And then at the bottom center we have this architectural structure populated with various people. And that’s another story. And then at the edge of that forest, we have another landscape, the different kinds of trees. And that’s another story.

0:01:00.1 Dr. Beth Harris: So this is ingenious, the way that the artist has clearly separated the stories.

0:01:05.0 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: It is well known that Buddhist art, just as Buddhist literature depicts a story. Sutras, which are considered to be the written down words of the Buddha, as recounted by his disciples, are narratives of the events when the Buddha taught. And for the Buddhists everywhere, not only Tibetan Buddhists, the Buddha’s life story is obviously one of the most famous, but there are other also well-known stories of his former lives. They comprise two collections known as jatakas and avadanas. So these collections of stories in which he’s often not even a human, but an animal, show examples of moral behaviour, workings of karma. And they were meant to inspire people to live a more conscious and meritorious life. And Tibetan religious teachers and scholars actively adapted and expanded these collections of stories by compiling them, printing books, and also commissioning illustrated visual narratives like a series of paintings, one of these paintings, we have here in front of us.

0:02:16.3 Dr. Beth Harris: I’m especially drawn to the scene on the lower left where I see a buffalo next to a monkey, and they both look up attentively and seem to be in conversation with this figure in a tiger’s pelt. There’s something adorable about those two animals.

0:02:36.5 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: This is a story about a patient buffalo. At one time, the Buddha in his former life was a buffalo, and this buffalo was very kind. And so this monkey began tormenting him.

0:02:49.9 Dr. Beth Harris: The monkey is covering his eyes and riding on his back, really tormenting him.

0:02:55.0 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: But he would not respond in any way, and he would just patiently take it all. And so this yaksha, this figure in tiger’s pelt asked the buffalo, why are you so patient? You are much more powerful. You can just kill the monkey and get rid of this suffering. And the buffalo said, it is easy to be patient with those who are more powerful, but when enduring injuries from the powerless, it is an opportunity to show patience and virtue, however uncomfortable it may be. So this is a lesson on patience and the buffalo said that it was also helping the monkey.

0:03:35.1 Dr. Beth Harris: It does remind me of a mother with children. That one has to be patient with those who don’t understand.

0:03:43.4 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: Another interesting story, which also depicts one of the former lives of the Buddha when he was not human, is to the right. And it’s a story about a woodpecker who helped a lion.

0:03:57.4 Dr. Beth Harris: Well, I see the body and legs of a bird who seems to have his head in the mouth of a lion, which looks very dangerous.

0:04:05.2 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: And the story says that one day this woodpecker saw a lion in pain, and it was because he had a splinter of bone in his throat. So the woodpecker used a stick to open the lion’s maw and stuck his head into his mouth and took out that splinter, saving the lion’s life. But then the story goes that the lion got some food that he’s enjoying, but the woodpecker was quite hungry. And so he came over to the lion and asked if he could have a little morsel, but the lion refused and even threatened woodpecker. So woodpecker just flew away. But a forest deity, who observed all of this interaction was quite outraged by the lion’s unkindness and asked the woodpecker, why don’t you retaliate? Why don’t you, for instance, blind the lion and get his food? And the woodpecker said, kindness should not be done simply in the hope that I will get something in return. My compassion was not alone with expectation of returned compassion.

0:05:11.9 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: Each story is painted in somewhat abbreviated manner, but you can still follow what’s going on because a convention known as the continuous narrative depicts the main character of the stories several times. And so you understand that this is one and the same buffalo, or this is the same woodpecker. These jataka stories or avadanas were often used by religious teachers at Buddhist festivals as teachings to a wider public or general audience, and they would read these stories and comment on them.

0:05:45.1 Dr. Beth Harris: The Buddha in the centre surrounded by clouds sitting on a lotus blossom in a position of meditation seems so peaceful even though he’s surrounded by all of these tumultuous scenes of his past lives.

0:06:01.3 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: You can almost imagine that he is remembering these various incidents, recalling them and kind of manifesting them so that others can see and relate and learn the stories and the lessons in them.

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This work at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art

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Learn more about thangkas on Project Himalayan Art, a resource from the Rubin for learning about Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian art and cultures:

Learn more about the power of Buddhist storytelling from scholar of Buddhism Donald Lopez

Explore diverse themes of visual stories in Tibetan Buddhist culture

Visit legendary sites of the Buddha and learn about the main events of his life

Buddhism, an introduction

How to recognize the Buddha

Jatakas: the many lives of Buddha as Bodhisattva

The making of a thangka painting