Tradition

Vessantara Jataka

The Vessantara Jataka (មហាជាតក៍) is a Buddhist birth story about Prince Vessantara’s generosity, represented in Cambodian art and textiles.[1][2][3] The prince’s name is also written វេស្សន្តរ.[1]

A wide silk hanging in deep red, gold, green and cream, woven with rows of figures, white elephants, horsemen, seated figures and two tall roofed pavilions, framed by a green patterned border
A pidan temple hanging showing scenes from the Vessantara Jataka, late 19th or early 20th century, Art Gallery of South Australia

Story and performance

The prince gives away a white elephant and offers his family as servants.[3] The family includes his wife and children.[3] Performances and interpretations of the story vary across Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.[4]

Reliefs, hangings and murals

Reliefs at Banteay Samre include episodes identified with the Vessantara story.[5] Scenes also appear on hol pidan, silk hangings offered to Wats as acts of merit.[2][3] The hangings were suspended above the principal Buddha image in temple interiors.[2] One Vessantara hanging shows a pavilion with figures of his wife and children.[3]

At Wat Bo (វត្តរាជបូណ៌) in Siem Reap (សៀមរាប), a mural on the east wall shows Jujuka, a figure of the Vessantara story, at a villa in a market.[6] The mural dates are unresolved: 1920 to 1924 and 1887 to 1890 have both been proposed, while no records date them.[6]

Khmer texts

In Khmer literature, forms of the Mahajataka name are attested in inscriptions dated 1575, 1599, 1629 and 1747.[1] Forms of Vessantara are cited in inscriptions from 1684 and 1704.[1] An illustrated Khmer-Lao version is undated; a catalog dates it, tentatively, to 1947.[7]

References 7
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, A Dictionary of Middle Khmer (2011)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Hol Pidan: An Otherworldly Cambodian Experience (September 17, 2018)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, Collection Stories, “Hol Pidan” from Cambodia (undated)
  4. ↑ Journal of Southeast Asian Studies / Cambridge University Press, The historical vicissitudes of the Vessantara Jataka in mainland Southeast Asia (January 16, 2018)
  5. ↑ Angkor Database (English translation of Maurice Glaize), The Monuments of the Angkor Group (undated)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 KhmerImagery (Vittorio Roveda), The murals of Wat Bo (Siem Reap) Part 1 (February 24, 2017)
  7. ↑ Library of Congress, International Collections blog, From The Library of Suzanne Karpelès: Jewels of Early Cambodian Buddhist Printing and Modernist Khmer and Pali Manuscripts (May 2024)


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This page was last edited on 14 November 2026, at 18:25.