Chapter 34: Reflections on Jataka and Buddha’s Life Stories

As I look back at everything I’ve written so far, I often ask myself: why do Gandhara art reliefs captivate me so deeply? The answer is clear—they are not just carvings; they are a life of the Buddha carved in stone.

As I pieced the chapters together, the Buddha’s journey replayed before me:

• Past lives: the Dipankara prophecy, with the ascetic kneeling and offering a lotus, always feels like the symbolic beginning of his path to Buddhahood.
• Birth and renunciation: from Queen Maya’s dream of the white elephant to the Great Departure, the artists preserved each decisive moment as if telling a graphic novel in stone.
• Enlightenment and teaching: the First Sermon, the preaching in the Trayastrimsa heaven, the miracles at Sravasti—these remind me that the Dharma was never abstract but lived and shared through stories.
• Final moments: Parinirvana, the encoffining of the body, the distribution of relics, and the worship of stupas. These scenes show how Buddhism transformed from the life of a man into a lasting collective faith, embodied in relics and monuments.

Seen together, these reliefs are almost like a stone-carved cinematic biography. And for me as a researcher and writer, working through them feels like walking alongside the Buddha’s life all over again.

What strikes me most is their communal power. Two thousand years ago, most lay followers couldn’t read scriptures. Yet, when they circumambulated a stūpa and looked up at these reliefs, they could “read” the Buddha’s story instantly. That’s visual teaching at its most powerful.

This is why I see Gandharan art not just as art, but as one of the greatest translation projects in Buddhist history—translating profound doctrine into images accessible to all.

When I compare reliefs from different sites, I also notice how the same stories take on different emphases. Some highlight royal grandeur, others the participation of monks and laypeople, still others exaggerate the majesty of the stupa itself. These variations reveal not only artistic choices but also the cultural and social worlds behind each site.

With this, I feel the cycle of Jataka and Buddha’s life stories can come to a close. Next, I want to take you with me to the actual archaeological sites—Taxila, Swat Valley, Peshawar, and more—to see where these reliefs came from and what styles and histories they embody.