Framing the path to awakening: Tibetan adaptations of the Jātaka genre
Jātaka and avadāna stories belong to the staples of Buddhist narrative literature. While most jātakas follow a relatively stable narrative template, they also allow for some variation depending on their time and place of composition and the audiences they are meant to address. Jātaka stories have b...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambria Press
2023
|
| _version_ | 1826312734079188992 |
|---|---|
| author | Roesler, U |
| author_facet | Roesler, U |
| author_sort | Roesler, U |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Jātaka and avadāna stories belong to the staples of Buddhist narrative literature.
While most jātakas follow a relatively stable narrative template, they also allow for some
variation depending on their time and place of composition and the audiences they are meant
to address. Jātaka stories have been told and preserved in a variety of languages and literary
forms, from simple prose narratives to complex poems or visual representations. This article
focuses on Tibetan adaptations of the jātaka genre. It begins with a brief survey of jātaka stories
translated from Sanskrit or Chinese and contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon, and then
moves on to investigate one specific jātaka cycle composed in Tibet within the Bka’ gdams pa
school of Tibetan Buddhism. The frame story is of particular interest, as this is where the
Tibetan narrators are perhaps at their most innovative. In these Bka’ gdams pa jātakas, the
narrative frame is shifted from India to Tibet, and the main characters of the frame story are
newly converted Tibetan Buddhists and their Indian teacher. This highly original appropriation
of the jātaka genre demonstrates the important role of narrative literature in the Tibetan
adoption and adaptation of Buddhism. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T08:25:07Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:b4330c8d-6f2b-4b83-bcea-3b9fe188f183 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-23T08:26:13Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | Cambria Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:b4330c8d-6f2b-4b83-bcea-3b9fe188f1832024-04-12T09:10:07ZFraming the path to awakening: Tibetan adaptations of the Jātaka genreJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b4330c8d-6f2b-4b83-bcea-3b9fe188f183EnglishSymplectic ElementsCambria Press2023Roesler, U Jātaka and avadāna stories belong to the staples of Buddhist narrative literature. While most jātakas follow a relatively stable narrative template, they also allow for some variation depending on their time and place of composition and the audiences they are meant to address. Jātaka stories have been told and preserved in a variety of languages and literary forms, from simple prose narratives to complex poems or visual representations. This article focuses on Tibetan adaptations of the jātaka genre. It begins with a brief survey of jātaka stories translated from Sanskrit or Chinese and contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon, and then moves on to investigate one specific jātaka cycle composed in Tibet within the Bka’ gdams pa school of Tibetan Buddhism. The frame story is of particular interest, as this is where the Tibetan narrators are perhaps at their most innovative. In these Bka’ gdams pa jātakas, the narrative frame is shifted from India to Tibet, and the main characters of the frame story are newly converted Tibetan Buddhists and their Indian teacher. This highly original appropriation of the jātaka genre demonstrates the important role of narrative literature in the Tibetan adoption and adaptation of Buddhism. |
| spellingShingle | Roesler, U Framing the path to awakening: Tibetan adaptations of the Jātaka genre |
| title | Framing the path to awakening: Tibetan adaptations of the Jātaka genre |
| title_full | Framing the path to awakening: Tibetan adaptations of the Jātaka genre |
| title_fullStr | Framing the path to awakening: Tibetan adaptations of the Jātaka genre |
| title_full_unstemmed | Framing the path to awakening: Tibetan adaptations of the Jātaka genre |
| title_short | Framing the path to awakening: Tibetan adaptations of the Jātaka genre |
| title_sort | framing the path to awakening tibetan adaptations of the jataka genre |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT roesleru framingthepathtoawakeningtibetanadaptationsofthejatakagenre |