The Previous Lives of Gautama Buddha: the...
Transcript of The Previous Lives of Gautama Buddha: the...
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Devotees who were permitted to ascend to the first gallery inside the balustrade would have en-
tered a new world. Here they were screened off from the outside world by high walls, enabling them to
imagine that they were in a realm of fantasy. The first gallery contains four relief series; two on the outer
balustrade, and two more on the main wall. It is thus necessary to circumambulate the monument four
times in order to follow all the reliefs in proper order.
Starting from the outer wall, entering the monument from the eastern stairway and turning left, visi-
tors first see two series of reliefs, one above the other. Both illustrate stories from a very popular source
in Buddhism; the Jatakas or “birth stories” which depict acts of self-sacrifice performed by Gautama
Buddha in his earlier incarnations. The Jatakas occupy 500 panels on the first balustrade and 100 on
the balustrade of the second gallery, or 600 panels in all.
Jatakas were favorite subjects for both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhists (the type of Buddhism
popular in mainland Southeast Asia today). Conventionally there are 547 Jatakas. They have been writ-
ten down in several versions. Not all the Jataka reliefs at Borobudur have been identified; if as seems
likely the Javanese had a particular manuscript of the Jatakas, it does not seem to have survived. It
seems to have differed in some respects from versions known from other countries. A text entitled Jat-
akalamala or “Garland of Birth Stories” written in the fourth century is attributed to a man named Arya-
sura. This text, or a very similar one, seems to have been used to design the first 34 stories covering
135 panels at Borobudur, but from there on the stories begin to deviate.
OPPOSITE: The first gallery: once inside
the walls, the outside world becomes almost
invisible. The visitor is suddenly surrounded
by a fantasy realm replete with beautiful
people, monsters, exotic landscapes,
and other imagery far removed from daily
experience. Before the age of moving
pictures, this huge picture gallery must have
exercised a profound influence on viewers.
BELOW: (IB b24-25) This pair of reliefs from
the Jataka tales narrates the story of Buddha
in one of his early incarnations. He was a
rabbit whose friends were a jackal, otter, and
ape. He taught them the virtue of generosity.
The old man in the left relief is actually the god
Indra in disguise. He often tested the future
Buddha’s virtue. In this case the jackal, otter,
and ape all brought food for the old man, but
Buddha had nothing to give, so he offered
himself to be eaten.
The Previous Lives of Gautama Buddha: the Jatakas
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ABOVE: (IB a 192-193-194) In these reliefs,
the future Buddha is a giant sea tortoise. He
sees a ship in danger of sinking, with sharks
lurking nearby to eat the men. He saves the
500 merchants by carrying all of them on
his back. Arriving on a desert island, where
there is no food, he gives himself to them
to eat. This Jataka, Kacchapavadana, only
appears in one Sanskrit text. This indicates
that the Borobudur planners had access to
some rare texts.
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The upper series of reliefs on the first balustrade was added at a later phase in the monument’s
development. The new stones were not integrated into the structure, and many have disappeared,
either through natural collapse or looting. The reason for this addition has not been discovered, but as
noted earlier, may have been intended to replace the depiction of the law of cause and effect on the
now-hidden foot. The carving of the decorations separating the panels on the first balus trade have been
judged as of poorer artistic quality than the rest of the monument, another indication that they were
“tacked on”.
In Jatakas illustrated here, story 6 tells of the time when the future Buddha was incarnated as a
rabbit. The rabbit taught his friends (a jackal, an otter, and an ape) the importance of generosity. The
god Indra, adopted from Hinduism, often appears in Jatakas to test the future Buddha’s resolve to attain
enlightenment. In this story Indra disguised himself as a brahman. Buddha’s three friends could bring
food but the rabbit could not, so he gave himself by jumping into the fire (picture IBb24-25). In another
story (picture 19 Iba192-193-194), the bodhisattva was a sea turtle. When he saw a ship sinking and
a sea monster about to eat the hapless passengers, he rescued them and carried them to a nearby
island. Seeing that there was nothing on the island for the people to eat, he gave himself to be cooked
to save their lives.
The Jatakas appear to have been considered as slightly more elevating than the Law of Cause and
Effect, since they were given a higher placement on the monument. The carving style is lively, even
humorous, and seems to include many scenes taken from daily life in Java at this time. It includes
pictures of people worshiping stupas, and also a garuda worshipping Buddha. Buddhism did not deny
the existence of supernatural beings such as gods, garudas, and kinnara, and it is no surprise that they
were often incorporated into the service of spreading the law of Buddha.
OPPOSITE: (I Ba 214) This is another relief
which has not been deciphered. The import
of this panel is however clear: it represents
heaven, with a wishing tree or kalpataru
growing out of clouds, with vases of jewels
beneath it and a parasol in front of it. Two
kinnara or heavenly bird-humans complete
the scene which seems to be framed by an
architectural element such as a doorway.
BELOW: (Left) (I Ba 115) This relief is the last
of four panels which tell the story of Buddha
as an elephant. After helping some people
lost in the forest find their way, he kills himself
to provide food for them, the people honor him
by building a stupa. The artist has depicted a
lotus pond in front of it, enabling us to envi-
sion a similar scene in ancient Java. (Right) (I
Ba166) This relief belongs to an undeciphered
series. The appearance of Garuda is not
surprising; the builders of Borobudur assumed
that the Hindu deities existed, but acknowl-
edged the supremacy of the Buddhist philoso-
phy. The person seated next to Garuda may
be Visnu. The next relief (not shown) depicts
a Buddha-like figure preaching, so these two
panels are probably connected.
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ABOVE: (Iba77-78-79) Buddha is a golden
swan living on Lake Manasa. He is probably
the bird on the upper left of the first panel. In
the second panel, the king of Banares sits
on his throne. He hears of the wise swans
and wants to meet them. A fowler snares
the Buddha (scene at right), but eventually
frees him and Buddha goes to the king’s
court voluntarily.
RIGHT ABOVE: (Iba58) Buddha as a quail.
The forest where the future Buddha lives is
threatened by fire. Buddha, in at lower left,
pleads with Agni, god of fire, to spare the
living creatures and the fire stops.
FOLLOWING PAGE: (Iba365-366-367) In
this unidentified story, a king is accompanied
by female attendants; they pour water on a
stupa from an ewer in an action of worship;
and at right men bring pots of jewels to offer
to the stupa.
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The Avadanas are another class of popular tales. Some concern other people who attained en-
lightenment, while others seem to be purely entertaining fables. The first of these, shown on the lower
register of the first main wall of Borobudur, depicts the love story of a human man and a nymph named
Manohara. This story is known in many parts of Southeast Asia; in some areas such as southern Thai-
land it became the basis for a dance drama. The first 21 reliefs of the Avadana series on Borobudur are
devoted to this tale, which seems to have been drawn from a Sanskrit original entitled Divyadana.
In relief Ib5, the young man named Sudhana sits beside a lotus pond where he has come upon
Manohara and her sisters bathing. He has learned a spell from a wise man which paralyzes her. The
artist who designed the relief has effectively emphasized her inability to move by isolating her against a
plain background while on the left all the other nymphs are flying into the air. One looks back at Mano-
hara in wonderment that she does not flee too (photo below, this page).
Manohara marries Sudhana and lives in the palace with him and his father the king. The other pal-
ace women become jealous of her beauty and hatch a plot to murder her while Sudhana is away on a
military expedition. She recovers her power of flight and escapes from the palace. This relief is another
of Borobudur’s masterpieces.
BELOW: (Ib5) In one of the Avadana stories about
a miscellany of subjects, Manohara, a nymph, has
been captured by a human who fell in love with
her. She stands alone against a plain background
which emphasizes her paralysis, while on the left
her sisters flee from a lotus pond where they had
come to bathe. Some look back as if to ask why
she is not joining them.
Another story concerns a righteous king who forbids killing. Indra decides to test him, and changes into
a falcon in order to pursue a dove into the king’s palace. The king then forbids the falcon to eat the dove,
but when the falcon points out that he must eat meat or die, the good kings Sibi offers to give the falcon
an amount of his flesh to eat equivalent to the weight of the dove. Sibi cuts off various parts of his body,
but Indra slyly fixes the scales so that they never are heavy enough. Eventually King Sibi offers his entire
body, at which point Indra concedes Sibi’s good faith and restores him (photo above, this page).
The story of Rudrayana and King Bimbisara depicts the fate of a king who oppresses a Buddhist
monk. In this relief jewelry and money pour out of oval vases floating in clouds just before the city of
the evil king is to be destroyed. A dense crowd gathers up the treasure; one humorously-depicted man
grins as he holds a bowl to protect his head. Two ministers at lower left who have been warned of what
is about to happen fill their small boat with jewelry in preparation for their escape. The king, unaware
of his approaching doom, sits in a pavilion in front of a building representing the rest of the city (picture
Ib82). In the next photo (Ib86), pages 172-173, the good minister Hiru arrives at his new home. The
ship in the right half of the panel is one of the best sources of information on ancient Indonesian ship
construction; it is equipped with outriggers like traditional Southeast Asian craft, and has several sails.
The strong sensation of movement imparted by the ship’s depiction contrasts vividly with the serenity of
the left sode of the panel, where Hiru is greeted by the local people. Their house in the background is
also very realistically depicted. The house’s construction corresponds better to what we know of houses
in other parts of Indonesia than to Java: it is set on pillars, and the roof employs the stressed roofbeam
technique found today in parts of Sumatra and Sulawesi (page 158).
ABOVE: (Ib 56) In a well-known Jataka, the
future Buddha is the good King Sibi. Indra
decides to test his goodness by taking the
form of a hawk and chasing a dove into the
palace. The future Buddha offers himself to be
eaten, cutting off various parts of his body and
placing them on the scale to equal the weight
of the dove’s meat. Indra then acknowledges
his virtue and restores him.
The Lives of the Other Enlightened Ones: the Avadanas