Scenes from the life of the Buddha

This painting continues, but not directly in sequence, the life of the Buddha of which earlier episodes are shown in the painting (2006.27.122.15). Other unlocated paintings from this set must have carried the narrative through the decades between the episodes in these two.

The scenes shown here are as follows:
1. Food is prepared for what will turn out to be the Buddha's last meal before he passes away.
2. This food is offered to the Buddha. In fact, the identity of this scene is not certain. Usually the Buddha would be shown in the process of eating, and other monks would sit nearby. Another unusual feature of this depiction is the long empty space behind the Buddha in the pavilion in which he sits.
3. The passing away of the Buddha, frequently enough represented in other Thai paintings from the nineteenth century, is not shown. We next see one of the Buddha's disciples, Kashyapa, learning of his master's death from a naked ascetic (shown here wearing a few leaves) he encounters on the road.
4. Kashyapa joins other disciples in paying homage to the coffin of the Buddha. As a mark of favor to Kashyapa, the feet of the Buddha emerge from the coffin.
5. Nobles riding elephants come to claim the Buddha's relics- that is, his ashes.
6. To prevent conflict over possession of the relics, a priest opens the urn to portion them out. He has secreted a tooth relic in his hair: Indra swoops down to retrieve it, and later deposits it in the Chulamani stupa, which also contained hair relics, in his heavenly city.
7. This scene is difficult to identify. The Buddha, seemingly alive, sits in meditation and is worshiped by five celestials, two hermits, and a mythical bird.
8. Surrounded by attendants a kinglike figure rides in on a horse pulling a conveyance on which is placed a relic casket. Presumably this is the great Indian Buddhist king Ashoka, who, in an extension to the Buddha's life story tries to gather all the dispersed relics of the Buddha but is frustrated by the demon Mara.
9. A great monk, who possesses extraordinary powers, is summoned by Ashoka to overcome Mara. In the painting the monk and Mara can be seen struggling together. Mara is subdued. The defeated Mara is made to take on the form of the Buddha, whom the monk never saw during his lifetime.