Buddha Shakyamuni and Scenes of His Previous Lives (Jataka Tales)

Tibet

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 253

This painting depicts a rare subject in Tibetan art, the life of Buddha Shakyamuni and his previous incarnations as told in the Jataka tales. These stories form an essential component of the Buddhist cosmology. Two Jatakas recount the central teaching of bodhisattva’s self-sacrifice: Sibi Jataka in which the bodhisattva cut off his own flesh to feed the hungry, and the tale of Prince Sattva, who committed suicide in order to gift his body to a tigress so she could feed her starving cubs. This thangka has a Chinese inscription dating the work to the reign of the Ming Emperor Wanli (r. 1573–1619), as well as Tibetan glosses identifying the scenes depicted. The presence of the Tibetan inscriptions indicates that this thangka was made for a Tibetan client. Depicted around the central icon of a radiant Buddha are the narratives, each with mountains and monastic buildings serving as scene dividers.

Buddha Shakyamuni and Scenes of His Previous Lives (Jataka Tales), Distemper on cloth, Tibet

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.