Himalayan Art Resources

Item: Shakyamuni Buddha - Jataka (previous lives)

ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ། 释迦牟尼佛
(item no. 74281)
Origin Location Buryatia
Date Range 1800 - 1899
Lineages Buddhist
Material Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton
Collection Buryat Historical Museum
Notes about the Central Figure

Classification: Person

Appearance: Buddha

Gender: Male

Interpretation / Description

Shakyamuni Buddha, Previous Life Stories (Sanskrit: jataka. Tibetan: kye rab): from the famous Indian text presenting 34 morality tales drawn from the previous life stories of the historical buddha, Shakyamuni.


The Starving Tigress (Jataka Story #1)

A tale of compassion, selflessness, and generosity.

Born into a family of Brahmans renowned for their purity of conduct and great spiritual devotion, the bodhisattva became a great scholar, teacher, and a perfect example of pure conduct. With no desire for wealth and gain, he entered a forest retreat and began a life as an ascetic. It was in this forest where he encountered a tigress who was starving and emaciated from giving birth and was about to resort to eating her own new born cubs for survival. With no food in sight, the bodhisattva, out of infinite compassion, offered his body as food to the tigress, selflessly forfeiting his own life.

Monty McKeever, 2-2005

Related Items
Thematic Sets
Shakyamuni Buddha: Jataka Stories (No Central Figure)
Collection of Buryat Historical Museum
Shakyamuni Buddha: Jataka Stories Main Page
Painting Type: Landscape Format (Deities & Figures)
Subject: Tiger Imagery