The Last Meal of Our Great Buddha
From TheBuddhism.Net
There are a few misleading facts which the Brahmins spread, to bring discredit to Buddha’s Vision, which was the greatest threat to them. They succeeded in their endeavor since Buddhism is now scarce in a country where it was born. But, as Buddhists, it is our duty to clear the misleading facts even as late as today.
The most notable is the misinterpretation regarding our Great Buddha’s last meal. The widely spread impression is that he died of eating a pork curry, which is totally false. In Kiran Desai’s year 2006 Booker Prize winning novel, “The inheritance of Loss”, she writes that Buddha died of eating pork in greed. This is what the ordinary people think. This is what the Brahmins led people to believe. This is what made so many ignorant Buddhists convert to other religions.
Buddha
The first mix up comes with the name of the person who gave the last meal ‘Chunda’ with that of the man who slaughtered pigs and sold the meat and died screaming like one during our Great Buddha’s time. Here, people tend to forget that the man was already dead before our Great Buddha attained “Parinirvana”.
The person who gave our Great Buddha his last meal was a wealthy jeweler named “Chunda Karmaaraputta” in whose leisure garden at Pawa that our Great Buddha stopped for the night, on his way to Kusinara.
Three months before his death, our Great Buddha told his disciples that he would attain “Parinirvana” on the Wesak Poya day in Kusinara. He was ailing from a stomach problem since six months before and his weak state and old age must have led to this decision. It was because of this illness that Chunda Karmaaraputta prepared a special medicinal curry under the supervision of the eminent physician at the time, Athula, which our Great Buddha partook.
This special medicinal curry was called “Sukara Maddawa” in Pali language.
The other mix up is regarding the word “Sukara”. The meaning of the single word “Sukara” is hog or pig. Therefore, Brahmins made-up the story that it was a pork curry.
Usually, as we very well know, patients with stomach problems are not given meat, specially pork because it is difficult to digest.
On the other hand, Indian high society at the time abhorred pork & beef. The three high casts, “Kshathri” (Rulers), “Brahmin” (Educators, intellectuals & farmers) and “Vaishya” (Traders) were all vegetarians.
A person like the wealthy “Chunda Karmaaraputta” undoubtedly a vegetarian would have never served a meat curry, specially pork which was considered very lowly in their society, to the ailing Buddha.
In Nepal and the nearby Ghorakpur District(Pawa and Kusinara belong to the Ghorakpur District) in India, people still have and eat a type of mushrooms called “Sukara Maddawa” (mushrooms spring up in places where pigs have muddied and added their dirt to the soil). There are also “Aja Maddawa” (mushrooms spring up in places where goats have muddied and added their dirt to the soil), “Gomaddawa” (mushrooms spring up in places where cows have muddied and added their dirt to the soil) and “Beluwa Maddawa” (mushrooms spring up on the roots of the cut bamboo trees), which are edible.
According to great pundits like the Most Venerable Achchuthananda Thero of Kusinara, the Most Venerable Buddhamitta Thero, the Most Venerable Amruthananda Thero of Kathmandu, the Most Venerable Lumbini Maithree Thero and others, “Sukara Maddawa” is a soft and easily digested food given to patients with stomach problems in Nepal made out of those mushrooms. They use it at present day too.
There is also a type of mushrooms like small yams which have a high medicinal value, specially for stomach problems called “Sukar bun” which are dug by hogs. In Western countries they call these ‘Hog Mushrooms’.
This type of mushrooms are very rare and very expensive. They are used to prevent High Blood Pressure, diabetic, cancer and weak eye sight.
All these evidence lead to the fact that Buddha ate a medicinal mushroom curry, not a pork curry.
We recommend you to read the book “The Last Meal of Buddha” by Dr. Sunil Jayasinha for more details.
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No matter what the buddha eats he will benefit sentient beings.
Well, I certainly learnt something new with this article. Now I know what was Buddha’s last meal. Thanks for this knowledge.
A very fortunate day for me as i have learnt somethine new about the last meal of our Great Buddha. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article.
The mushrooms sound like truffles to me… yummm… If it were, it was certainly befitting our Lord Buddha! And truffle does indeed have medicinal properties!
However, isn’t it interesting how “history” can be twisted and contorted to suit a person/persons whim and fancy.
It reminds me of yet another post whereby the truth is often buried only to be unearthed centuries later:
http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/current-affairs/buried-secrets-did-god-have-a-wife.html
Oh dear … I never knew that the Buddha’s last meal was such an issue. I would want to believe that for whatever reason that caused Him to pass on, it would have to be old age.
Let’s all remember Him (and everyone else that have passed on) for all the good meritorious work during His lifetime.
Hahaha! I can’t believe that people are still discussing what caused the Buddha’s death? Truffle or Pork? Well, people fail to understand that whatever it is, the Buddha is not an immortal nor a God so he is bound to pass away. The only difference is that his final departure is done with full control and his immortal teachings is his lasting legacy. For me, it doesn’t matter what caused the Buddha’s death. What matters is the way in which he died while displaying his full control and mastery over death. However, some details of how he died would appeal to certain scholars and would mean a lot to certain practitioners.
I certainly learned something new today. I had seen online at various places about this story that Buddha died from eating pork but i didn’t know what was the issue. At least now i know what is the real story behind it all.
It is easy to be misinformed if we do not research well and find out the true facts for ourselves. Inaccurate translations may make all the difference, such as in the documentary, “Did God have a wife”, http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/current-affairs/buried-secrets-did-god-have-a-wife.html where it states that “The Bible itself reveals that its God has the same name as the chief Canaanite God. The name El occurs elsewhere in the Bible but it tends to be hidden in English translations.” So across all religions, if something doesn’t make sense, perhaps we should check that it is not a case of lost in translation.
I am glad this article had been able to clear up the good name of the last meal that Buddha had before he went to parinirvana.
I feel this article had been written to prevent misinterpretation via translation of certain words or names used in ancient time to mislead facts by certain parties to bring discredit to Buddha. I agree that it is ‘our’ duty to clear these misleading facts by the knowledgeable sangha community. Therefore, we need to be careful of what we read. We should analyze what we read to check if its logical or not and not remain biased.
Hmm… I didn’t know about the pork curry confusion until I read about it here. I knew Buddha died after having food poisoning, but not the story that was twisted around by the Brahmins for their convenience. As I was reading this, it totally reminded me on what the scribes did with the Bible, by altering the contents to suit their benefits and thus lied to the general public whom at the time were mostly illiterate.
I suppose fortunately, in Buddhist texts, the Brahmins did not alter the contents but intentionally interpret it wrongly in order to get benefit out of it.
Glad that I know the truth behind it now!
This is an interesting section! And definitely an interesting article here about how Buddha pass on to “Parinirvana”. Firstly I never knew that there was another story which the Brahmin’s told that Lord Buddha ate pork curry abd passed on for that!
And even if this story was told to me I would have thought “oh wow, Buddha must have blessed the pork as He gain Parinirvana I am sure it must of some benefit to the poor piggy that got slaughtered for His last meal”. But lucky I have always heard and was taught the correct one. However, it was new to me that Buddha had been ill due to stomach problems or was it just a manifestation?