A Buddha Life Story thangka tells the life of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, in a single painting. A large Buddha sits at the centre, and around him, among palaces, hills and rivers, small scenes follow his life from his birth at Lumbini, in present-day Nepal, to his passing at Kushinagar. Tibetan painters usually follow the twelve deeds of a Buddha (Tibetan dzepa chunyi), the pattern that the life of every Buddha is said to follow.
How it is laid out
- The central Buddha sits on a throne, his right hand touching the earth and his left holding an alms bowl, often with two disciples standing beside or below him.
- The scenes fill the space around him. The Buddha appears again and again, once in each episode, a way of storytelling known as continuous narration.
- The landscape of palaces, hills, trees, rivers and clouds divides one scene from the next; some paintings set the scenes in roundels instead.
- The reading order varies from painting to painting. In one 19th-century example in the Rubin Museum, the story runs clockwise from the top centre.
Some of our paintings begin with Queen Maya's dream at the upper left and place the Buddha's passing below his throne. Some are long horizontal compositions drawn in gold-coloured line on black, with the scenes in roundels; others are in full colour with dense detail.
The twelve deeds
- Descent from Tushita heaven: the future Buddha hands his crown to Maitreya, the next Buddha, and descends to earth.
- Conception: Queen Maya dreams of a white elephant.
- Birth in the grove at Lumbini: Maya reaches up to the branch of a sal tree as the child is born from her side. He takes seven steps, and a lotus opens under each footprint.
- Skill in the arts: the young prince excels in learning, archery and contests of strength.
- Life in the palace with his wife and companions.
- Renunciation: after meeting old age, sickness and death, and then a wandering renunciant, he leaves the palace by night on his horse and cuts off his hair.
- Austerities: six years of harsh ascetic practice beside the Nairanjana river, which end when a village girl, Sujata, offers him a bowl of milk-rice.
- Going to the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, where he sits down to meditate.
- Victory over Mara, whose armies try to drive him from his seat; he touches the earth to call it to witness.
- Enlightenment.
- Turning the wheel of Dharma: his first teaching, to five companions in the Deer Park at Sarnath. Later episodes are often grouped under this deed, such as the miracles at Shravasti and his descent from the Heaven of the Thirty-Three after teaching his mother there.
- Parinirvana: his passing at Kushinagar, lying on his right side among his mourning disciples.
Lists differ slightly from one text to another, and painters add other favourite episodes. The last scene is also painted on its own: see our guide to Buddha Nirvana thangkas.
In a painting
A life story rewards close looking. Look for small figures that stay clear and lively at a few centimetres tall, horses and elephants drawn with care, and a landscape that leads the eye from one scene to the next without crowding. The central Buddha should be calm and well proportioned, as in any Shakyamuni Buddha thangka. To recognise the subject at a glance, look for one large Buddha surrounded by many small ones, each in a different scene.
