Buddha, Life of the, in Art

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BUDDHA, LIFE OF THE, IN ART

Because no single account of the Buddha's life survives, many Indian texts, most notably the Lalitavistara and the Buddhacarita, have been used to inspire artists seeking to represent important events from the Buddha's biography. Narrations were also composed in China and ancient Tibet. The number of events that are codified as important varies from four to 108. Events that could be associated with particular sites in northeast India usually formed the core of the lists; for example, the Buddha's birth in Lumbin?, his enlightenment in Bodh Gay?, his first sermon in S?rn?th, and his death in Ku?inagara. The Buddha's previous lives are extensively presented as instructive examples or parables, so the j?takas (birth stories) also inspired countless artworks portraying the "life" of the Buddha. Different Buddhist traditions and different countries chose from among these stories the ones that spoke to their particular needs. The life of the Buddha as narrated in art also became a model for characterizing the lives of other Buddhist teachers and deities. The transcendent buddhas of the Mah?y?na and Vajr?yana traditions, for example, are characterized as concrete manifestations of ??kyamuni by depicting them with attributes and gestures linked to particular events in the Buddha's life.

It can be argued that since texts refer to the Buddha's life to teach particular doctrines, they put their own spin on the events. The same could be said about the visual arts because choices must be made about

which events to emphasize and how to interpret their meaning. However, the visual images that are used by all schools and regions to narrate the Buddha's life seem to provide a more resonant level of clarity to the Buddha's teachings than could be achieved with texts alone.

From the dream of Queen M?y? to the great renunciation

The Buddha's mother, Queen M?y? (sometimes Mah?m?y?, "Great Illusion"), dreamt that a silvery-white elephant, holding a white lotus flower in its trunk, entered her right side. Brahmanic priests asked to interpret the dream foretold the birth of a son who would become either a great monarch or a sage. This miracle is portrayed only on early Indian st?pa reliefs in which M?y? reclines with a small elephant floating above her. The symbolism of the elephant probably resonated with early patrons as the pan-Indian symbol of supreme royalty and of the life-giving rain from thunderclouds.

M?y? gave birth to the future Buddha at Lumbin?, a village in southern Nepal. She entered a grove of trees, reached up to grasp a branch, and the prince emerged from her right side. This miraculous birth is often depicted on aniconic reliefs that include no image of the baby. M?y? is shown as a nearly nude Indian fertility spirit called a ? ?labhañjik?, a yak?? who stands in a dance posture holding the branch of a tree. Beginning in the second century c.e. in the Gandh?ra region in present-day Pakistan, a tiny child is shown emerging from her side. In artworks from China and Japan, M?y? is shown as a fully clothed dancer with a baby diving out of her long right sleeve.

After the child is born, he is bathed by two streams of water. In Indian depictions, the water comes either from jars held by gods or from the trunks of elephants. In Southeast Asia, the water flows from the mouths of mythical serpents called n?gas. In the Himalayas and East Asia, dragons take over this role. The art of each region uses whichever local creature represents the power of water to confer royal status (the abhi?eka ritual) and to purify. In Japan there is an annual lustration ceremony of the baby Buddha called Kanbutsu.

The Buddha's life as the prince Siddh?rtha Gautama is depicted as one of sheltered dalliance and a time of training in the skills needed to rule a kingdom. When he was about twenty-nine years old, after he has had a son appropriately named R?hula (fetter), Siddh?rtha is motivated to leave the palace to seek an understanding of the suffering he sees in the world. This event, which is frequently depicted in the art of South and Southeast Asia, is called the "great renunciation" because it represents the enormous sacrifice of his princely lifestyle. Siddh?rtha rides out on a horse whose hooves are supported by demigods (yak?as) so that the horse makes no noise to wake Siddh?rtha's family. In aniconic representations the horse has no rider, but a parasol above the horse indicates Siddh?rtha's presence. In South and Southeast Asia the fact that the Buddha was born to be a prince and renounced this privileged life is of great importance because by this act he denied both caste and royal obligations, and affirmed the value of seeking enlightenment.

From the search for truth to enlightenment

Siddh?rtha practiced yogic austerities almost to the point of death in his supreme effort to gain higher states of consciousness. Artists in the Gandh?ra region sculpted an image of this emaciated figure in what would be called today a superrealistic style. Every bone, vein, and hollowed surface of his body is shown in glaring detail. The Chan school of East Asia also celebrates this stage of the Buddha's life in paintings of a scruffy figure emerging from the mountains and in sculptures of an emaciated, bearded figure in deep thought, although not in a traditional meditation posture. The Therav?da and Chan view of the Buddha's life honors the extremes in his search for truth as he pushed his body and mind to their farthest limits.

When starvation did not reveal the truth to Siddh?rtha, he took nourishment offered by a girl named Suj?t?—an event sometimes shown in Indian reliefs and Southeast Asian paintings, and he vowed to sit beneath a fig tree in meditation until he became enlightened. Images of the Buddha ??kyamuni seated in a meditation posture, which appear throughout Buddhist Asia, refer to this vow.

While meditating beneath the bodhi tree, the name it acquired after his enlightenment, Siddh?rtha was assaulted by M?ra, the Buddhist god of death and desire. Called the M?ravijaya, or conquest of M?ra, this event is a common subject of sculptures and paintings in all parts of Buddhist Asia. M?ra, often riding an elephant, leads both his armies of demons and his beautiful daughters in an effort to distract Siddh?rtha from his vow. The Buddha is often shown seated in meditation in the midst of these figures with his right hand reaching down to touch the earth (bh?mispar?a-mudr?) as he asks the earth to bear witness to his perfection and utter commitment to becoming a buddha, an awakened or enlightened one immune to death or desire. M?ra is thus defeated. The earth-touching gesture alone also refers to the defeat of M?ra and signifies the moment when Siddh?rtha Gautama becomes the Buddha. On aniconic monuments, the Buddha's

enlightenment is represented by an empty seat beneath a tree.

After the Buddha was enlightened, he remained in meditation for seven weeks. During this time a torrential rain occurred and the serpent king (n?gar?ja) named Mucalinda protected the Buddha from the storm by lifting him above the waters and spreading his seven hoods out over the Buddha's head. Images of this event are common in Cambodia where the n?ga is especially revered and seen to be the protector of the Cambodian king. During the Khmer empire in the early thirteenth century, a cult was introduced around this image, possibly to honor King Jayavarman VII (r. ca. 1181–1219) as both a living buddha and as the protector of his kingdom. After this king's reign ended, there was an iconoclastic reaction in Cambodia to Jayavarman's use of the images to have himself worshiped as a god.

From the first sermon to the parinirv??a

The Buddha delivered his first sermon at the Deer Park in S?rn?th. Images showing him with the "turning the Wheel of the Dharma" gesture (dharmacakra-mudr?) refer to this event. The importance of this gesture is that the Buddha is setting in motion the four noble truths and revealing the middle path by which anyone can transcend the sufferings of living in the world. This image further represents all of the Buddha's teachings as expounded by the various miracles and doctrines, and is therefore used in art throughout Asia. A wheel alone can also symbolize the dharmacakra and the first sermon, especially if it is surrounded by two deer to indicate the context of the teaching. This symbol is commonly sculpted on Mah?y?na and Vajray?na monasteries or temples, as well as on early aniconic monuments.

The Buddha taught and performed miracles for more than forty years after his enlightenment. Any standing Buddha image, often displaying the protection (abhaya) and giving (varada) gestures, can be viewed as representing this stage in ??kyamuni's life. The walking Buddha image in Thailand represents the impact of this part of the Buddha's life especially well. The aniconic version of the Buddha's ministry is equally eloquent: footprints to represent the Buddha's continued presence in this world. The great miracle at ?ravast?, when the Buddha multiplied himself before a congregation to demonstrate that his potential exists everywhere, is a frequent subject in South Asian and Chinese arts, especially in painting, where it may simply be shown as a whole mural of identical buddhas.

When he was approaching nearly eighty years old, the Buddha ??kyamuni traveled to a city called Ku?inagara and died. In the texts this event is called his parinirv??a, the Buddha's complete or final achievement of nirv??a. The primary symbol of the Buddha's parinirv??a is the st?pa, the commemorative monument to his death; as the st?pa form evolved into the mchod rten (chorten), dagoba, and the pagoda, it retained this symbolism. Images of the Buddha's parinirv??a show him reclining on his right side with his head resting on his right hand. Depictions of this "posture" vary in size, from tiny to colossal: Huge sculptures of the parinirv??a can be found in India, Sri Lanka, and many sites in East and Southeast Asia. A colossal image was erected at the archaeological site of ancient Ku?inagara in the twentieth century. The meaning of the st?pa and the reclining Buddha encompasses the promise that any human being can achieve nirv??a like the Buddha if they follow his last teaching: "work toward enlightenment with diligence."

Bibliography

Cummings, Mary. The Lives of the Buddha in the Art and Literature of Asia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1982.

Dehejia, Vidya. "On Modes of Visual Narration in Early Buddhist Art." Art Bulletin 71 (1990): 374–392.

Dehejia, Vidya. "Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems." Ars Orientalis 21 (1991): 45–66.

Dehejia, Vidya. Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997.

Ghose, Rajeshwari, ed. In the Footsteps of the Buddha: An Iconic Journey from India to China (exhibition catalogue). Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, 1998.

Huntington, Susan L. "Early Buddhist Art and the Theory of Aniconism." Art Journal 49, no. 4 (1990): 401–408.

Huntington, Susan L. "Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems." Ars Orientalis 22 (1992): 111–156.

Karetzky, Patricia E. Early Buddhist Narrative Art: Illustrations of the Life of the Buddha from Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000.

Pal, Pratapaditya. Light of Asia: Buddha ? ?kyamuni in Asian Art. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1984.

Gail Maxwell

Encyclopedia of Buddhism