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

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.