Item: Shakyamuni Buddha - Jataka (previous lives)

Shakyamuni Buddha and the Thirty-four or One Hundred Jataka Tales.

In the Tibetan tradition there are two popular groups of Jataka Tales. The first, and most well known, are the thirty-four tales. The second is a grouping of one hundred and eight which also includes the thirty-four.

This composition includes the last three of the thirty-four stories. They are #32 Prince of the Iron House, A Tale of Renunciation, #33 the Buffalo, A Tale of patience, and #34 the Woodpecker, Kindness without Thought of Reward.

It is likely that this paintings set contained nine, eleven or thirteen compositions containing the thirty-four stories approximately three per painting. Sometimes, if the stories are shorter there could be four or five to a composition - thus making the physical number of paintings in the set fewer. Because there is a lack of a donor figure or an ending or some sort of conclusion with this last painting completing the thirty-four tales, it could be that the full set of stories is the version with one hundred tales.

Jeff Watt 7-2013