【院生ゼミ】11月2日
【大学院】
From this week, we will look into a life story of the Buddha as depicted in a Burmese illustrated manuscript made in the early 1800s. The original manuscript, now kept in the British Library as Or. 14297, is 49 x 19 cm in size and contains 104 folds with illustrations on 52 openings. The illustrations were reproduced in the following book.
- Herbert, Patricia M. 1993. The Life of the Buddha. The British Library.
This work is a result of imagining the life of the Buddha in India in the past by the 19th century Burmese based on the Theravada Buddhist tradition. We follow the story from the Buddha's former life as Sumedha to his birth as Siddhartha.
It is interesting to note that the sage Kaladevala (also known as Asita), who predicted that prince Siddhartha would become a world-conquering monarch (chakravartin, "the wheel turner") or a Buddha ("the enlightened one"), is depicted as observing the prince's soles. This reminds us of the Buddha's footprints with symbols.
Next week, we will continue to follow the story.