Exploring Buddha's Parinirvāṇa Symbols: The Lion's Pose and Sal Trees

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study draws the specificity based on regional and cultural context and universality of contemporary parinirvāṇa paintings depicting the Buddha's death. In particular, this study found that the motif shared between the Death of Buddha produced in Tibet in the late 18th century, and Vegetable Nirvāṇa produced by Itō Jakuchū (伊藤若冲, 1716-1800), are described in the mahāparinirvāṇa texts, and how these motifs are reproduced in a new cultural context beyond the scope of religious art. Based on the texts, the posture of Buddha, “lying on his right side with his head facing north under a pair of sal trees,” is compared to a lion, the king of beasts, and connected to ‘mindfulness’ and ‘clearly knowing.’ In addition, notably, a sal tree is compared to a king or it symbolizes the power of healing owing to its size and usefulness in classical Indian literature and art. The description of the pair of sal trees in the Mahāparinibbānasuttanta provides evidence to infer the time of the Buddha's entry into parinirvāṇa. Furthermore, the Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra describes that even insentient beings, including sal trees, mourn the death of the Buddha. Therefore, this study suggests that the symbols of the two motifs, the lion's pose and sal trees, are essential for generating associations with the ‘classical image of the Buddha’ as a protagonist juxtaposed with the ‘Mitate-e’of fruits and vegetables mourning death.

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