The life of the Buddha

At the center of this painting sits the golden Buddha, hands in teaching gesture, as he reveals details of his past lives. Why is the Buddha revealing his own pre-history in this painting? The answer is karma—but how so? As the Buddhist tradition developed in India, it became obvious that, given the doctrine of karma and universal causation, the Buddha himself must have had previous lives where he learned all the lessons leading to Enlightenment, and that learning these stories could provide much needed insight into the process.

Eventually, five hundred of these stories were collected, and Tibetan artists of the eighteenth century involved themselves with painting each one—the present painting is one small part of one such set. The red trefoils outlined and inscribed in gold describe the action taking place in each discrete scene; ongoing research will clarify the specific life story from which each scene derives.