| This Thangka illustrates the life story of Buddha. Shakyamuni Buddha was born in Lumbini in the southern Nepal, twenty five hundred years ago. Since his time, Nepal has been a sacred ground for Buddhists, as the birthplace of the Buddha. Buddha was born to a royal family. His mother Mayadevi, a queen, had a dream of a white elephant with nine tusks came down to her from the heaven and enter her body. When her delivery time approached, en-routed to her parent?s home, she gave birth to Siddhartha in the garden in Lumbini. The prince is said to have emerged from her tight side as she rested her arm on the branch of a big tree. After birth of prince lived in his father's palace, free from the evil and pain outside world. His father had been informed by the sego of the time that the prince would leave either becomes a great king or holy man. Fearing his son would leave the world for religious practice, the king took pains to see that prince neither saw nor experienced suffering and hoped his son will become great emperor. But Siddhartha, who lived life of isolated royal splendor ventured beyond the castle walls one day. He came across sorrow, pain, death, and those suffering - he saw a beggar, a cripple, a corpse and a holy man. These encounters affected the prince deeply, awakening a deep desire to find the corpse of suffering and thus alleviate it. One night when all were asleep inside the palace, he escaped and began the life of wandering ascetic. For years he fasted, meditated and spent his time in painful search to find away to end suffering. On a full moon night, in Indian town of Bodhgaya as he meditated under a tree, Siddhartha had a direct realizations of nirvana (eternal peace). This transformed the prince into a Buddha. He spent rest of time guiding people towards nirvana, love and friendship. He left this world at the age of eighty, having exhausted his human body for the sake of all sentiment beings. |
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