The Pictural Life of the Buddha
The life of the Buddha is frequently depicted on the walls of temples in Thailand.
For centuries, the primary purpose of these murals, which depict episodes strongly tinged with legend, has been to nurture the religious and moral education of the Buddhist faithful. For the last two centuries, their secondary purpose has been to rival Christian hagiography.
This book analyses the main episodes in the murals, explaining their details and giving their doctrinal or legendary context.
Despite their differences in quality, from the most naive to the most refined, there is a close similarity between the murals from one temple to the next, in terms of both staging and detail. And these similarities are not confined to the temples of Thailand; they extend to monasteries in all other regions where the Theravāda tradition has flourished: Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and the north of the Mekong delta in Vietnam.
By the author of:
◆ 100 questions on Theravāda Buddhism
◆ Buddhism and Re-births
◆ The Legend of Gotama
◆ Rohingyas, from legend to reality
Didier Treutenaere holds a degree in philosophy from the Université Paris-Sorbonne
Specialist in Buddhist texts in the Pali language
Author of books and articles on the Theravāda tradition