Life of Buddha in stunning paintings
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
Dear friends around the world,
I have presented here for all you stunning pictures of paintings depicting the life and activities of Lord Buddha. Each painting has a easy to remember description below it. You can also download these photos here to share with friends and loved ones. Just by seeing these beautiful photos really soothe the mind and you feel more calm afterwards.
We are blessed to see these stunning photos.
Tsem Rinpoche
To download all of the pictures in one convenient .Zip file, please click below on the link:
- Life Story of the Buddha (79MB)
Buddha’s Biography
Religious Figure (c. 600 BCE – c. 300 BCE)
Synopsis
Siddhartha Gautama, who would one day become known as Buddha (“enlightened one” or “the awakened”), lived in Nepal during the 6th to 4th century B.C. While scholars agree that he did in fact live, the events of his life are still debated. According to the most widely known story of his life, after experimenting with different teachings for years, and finding none of them acceptable, Gautama spent a fateful night in deep meditation. During his meditation, all of the answers he had been seeking became clear, and achieved full awareness, thereby becoming Buddha.
Early Years
The Buddha, or “enlightened one,” was born Siddhartha (which means “he who achieves his aim”) Gautama to a large clan called the Shakyas in Lumbini, (today, modern Nepal) in the 6th century B.C. His father was king who ruled the tribe, known to be economically poor and on the outskirts geographically. His mother died seven days after giving birth to him, but a holy man prophesized great things for the young Siddhartha: He would either be a great king or military leader or he would be a great spiritual leader. To keep his son from witnessing the miseries and suffering of the world, Siddhartha’s father raised him in opulence in a palace built just for the boy and sheltered him from knowledge of religion and human hardship. According to custom, he married at the age of 16, but his life of total seclusion continued for another 13 years.
Beyond the Palace Walls
The prince reached his late 20s with little experience of the world outside the walls of his opulent palaces, but one day he ventured out beyond the palace walls and was quickly confronted with the realities of human frailty: He saw a very old man, and Siddhartha’s charioteer explained that all people grow old. Questions about all he had not experienced led him to take more journeys of exploration, and on these subsequent trips he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse and an ascetic. The charioteer explained that the ascetic had renounced the world to seek release from the human fear of death and suffering. Siddhartha was overcome by these sights, and the next day, at age 29, he left his kingdom, wife and son to lead an ascetic life, and determine a way to relieve the universal suffering that he now understood to be one of the defining traits of humanity.
The Ascetic Life and Enlightenment
For the next six years, Siddhartha lived an ascetic life and partook in its practices, studying and meditating using the words of various religious teachers as his guide. He practiced his new way of life with a group of five ascetics, and his dedication to his quest was so stunning that the five ascetics became Siddhartha’s followers. When answers to his questions did not appear, however, he redoubled his efforts, enduring pain, fasting nearly to starvation, and refusing water.
Whatever he tried, Siddhartha could not reach the level of satisfaction he sought, until one day when a young girl offered him a bowl of rice. As he accepted it, he suddenly realized that corporeal austerity was not the means to achieve inner liberation, and that living under harsh physical constraints was not helping him achieve spiritual release. So he had his rice, drank water and bathed in the river. The five ascetics decided that Siddhartha had given up the ascetic life and would now follow the ways of the flesh, and they promptly left him. From then on, however, Siddhartha encouraged people to follow a path of balance instead of one characterized by extremism. He called this path the Middle Way.
The Buddha Emerges
That night, Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi tree, vowing to not get up until the truths he sought came to him, and he meditated until the sun came up the next day. He remained there for several days, purifying his mind, seeing his entire life, and previous lives, in his thoughts. During this time, he had to overcome the threats of Mara, an evil demon, who challenged his right to become the Buddha. When Mara attempted to claim the enlightened state as his own, Siddhartha touched his hand to the ground and asked the Earth to bear witness to his enlightenment, which it did, banishing Mara. And soon a picture began to form in his mind of all that occurred in the universe, and Siddhartha finally saw the answer to the questions of suffering that he had been seeking for so many years. In that moment of pure enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha (“he who is awake”).
Armed with his new knowledge, the Buddha was initially hesitant to teach, because what he now knew could not be communicated to others in words. According to legend, it was then the king of gods, Brahma, who convinced Buddha to teach, and he got up from his spot under the Bodhi tree and set out to do just that.
About 100 miles away, he came across the five ascetics he had practiced with for so long, who had abandoned him on the eve of his enlightenment. To them and others who had gathered, he preached his first sermon (henceforth known as Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma), in which he explained the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, which became the pillars of Buddhism. The ascetics then became his first disciples and formed the foundation of the Sangha, or community of monks. Women were admitted to the Sangha, and all barriers of class, race, sex and previous background were ignored, with only the desire to reach enlightenment through the banishment of suffering and spiritual emptiness considered.
For the remainder of his 80 years, Buddha traveled, preaching the Dharma (the name given to the teachings of the Buddha) in an effort to lead others to and along the path of enlightenment. When he died, it is said that he told his disciples that they should follow no leader.
The Buddha is undoubtedly one of the most influential figures in world history, and his teachings have affected everything from a variety of other faiths (as many find their origins in the words of the Buddha) to literature to philosophy, both within India and to the farthest reaches of the Western world.
Sources:
1) https://www.facebook.com/tathgatbuddha/photos
2) http://www.biography.com/people/buddha-9230587#the-buddha-emerges
For more interesting information:
- The Life Story of Lama Tsongkhapa in art
- Dorje Shugden illustrated story & graphic novel
- Magadha Sangmo (须摩提女)
- Devadatta & blaming others…
- Paying Homage to our Great Buddha
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If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
Beautiful and colourful pictures of the life of Buddha. Its in simple colourful picture where everyone of us could understand. Surely children will definitely love it. Looking at those pictures paints a thousands words. All I can say its beautifully painted.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
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very beautyfu Paintings,Thank you.Channakumar.A.K.
I was so much fortune to come across reading this article. A full life journey and activities of Lord Buddha was well seen in the stunning and beautiful photographs. The amazing photos looked so much real and wonderful. Thanking you so much for the sharing and had a good feel and touch.
Thank you Rinpoche for these Amazing pictures of the story of the Buddha. I never knew there was a full collection of Buddha’s actions and lifestory. Inspirational to just view all these pictures. And wonderful write up about the life story of Lord Buddha. _/\_
Amazing pictures of the story of the Buddha. I never knew there was a full collection of Buddha’s actions and lifestory. Inspirational to just view all these pictures.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for these pictures of Buddhas life. They are really beautiful and detailed. 🙂 Buddhas life was truly amazing, and I find it equally amazing that, even after 2,500 years, we still want to know about him and his teachings. They are so timeless. 🙂
Thank you for sharing.
Your student,
Keng Hwa.
This article is about life of Lord Buddha. Many stunning photos depicted very clear picture of Buddhas life from birth to enlightenment. From the pictures, layman can easily understand Buddha life story and this is very good for people to get study in details on dharma work did by Lord Buddha.Thanks Rinpoche.
Life of Buddha has always been an enchanting story for me to read, and I never get tired reading it. The pictures denoting selected events in Buddha’s life have been beautifully painted. As the saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words”; the series of pictures give a vivid account of Buddha’s life story, it is most suitable for young children or busy adult to read through and be connected to Buddha.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing with us.
Humbly, bowing down,
Stella Cheang
Thank you, Rinpoche, for these pictures which depict important events in the life of Lord Buddha. They are beautiful and are very useful for teaching purposes. I also enjoyed looking at the interesting background details that portray the life and customs of the people of India during the Buddha’s time.
The life story of Lord Buddha is always fascinating no matter how many times it’s being read. The paintings were done very well as they skilfully captured the mood in the scenes. It felt like the artist gave it a lot of thought and care when creating these paintings. Buddha’s face looks very alive as a result.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these wonderful paintings!
Dear Rinpoche,
The images are stunning and I really enjoyed this post very much. Thank you with folded hands for yet another amazing post.
Thank You Rinpoche sharing this sacred and wonderful pictures Life Of Buddha to us , I Love all this pictures very much , feel touch in my heart and blessed when i saw on each picture.
Thank You Rinpoche
with folded hand
Jerry Sito