Buddha with the One Hundred Jataka Thangka

Buddha with the One Hundred Jataka Thangka is Masterpiece Thangka handpainted in Kathmandu Nepal.

Buddha with the One Hundred Jataka is an exceptional Thangka painting showing the previous one hundred births of Shakyamuni Buddha in one painting.

The Jataka tales are stories telling the previous lives of the Buddha, either in human or animal birth, revealing some lesson or virtue.

The new Thangka painting is based on one hundred Jataka stories written by the 14th century 3rd Karmapa Lama, Rangjung Dorje.

Shakyamuni Buddha is seated on a lotus throne ornately decorated and supported by two lions. Behind the throne are branches of a tree perched with birds.

The Buddha is wearing a gold decorated robe, holding a bowl in his left hand. He has his chief disciples Sariputta to his right and Maudgalyayana to his left.

The Buddha and monks appear with white halos.

At the bottom center is the panel showing the three donors. Painted blocks depicting the one hundred Jataka tales surround the central image, beginning at the top center and moving in a clockwise domino pattern around the central image.

In the Buddhist tradition, there are many variations of the tales, which have come from retelling these stories over centuries. The popular painted depictions focus on the thirty-four Jataka tales. In this unique painting, the thirty-four Jataka tales are included in the first set of thirty-four stories in the one hundred Jatakas.

The additional sixty-six stories depict slight variations of the first thirty-four life stories. The original Tibetan script with corresponding translation for each of the one hundred blocks and long narration of the first thirty-four Jataka life stories accompanies the work of art.