Prayer Wheel on Canvas

At his birth, Siddhartha said that he was coming to earth for the last time and this was the last in a perpetual series of existences. The many previous existences of the Buddha are known from legends and jatakas, stories about his previous births. In Mahayana Buddhism, the idea developed that the historic Buddha was only one in a long series of Buddhas. Shakyamuni's period will last 5,000 years, until about the year 4500, after which the new Buddha, Maitreya, will come.

In the later forms of Buddhism, the theology grew and, incidentally, so did the number of Buddhas, to a series of 8, 9, 24, 35, 52 or 1,000, and various other numbers. Here, it is not the power of the story that counts, but the might of the number, with its symbolic value of infinity. Much is good, more is better, or there strength in numbers and repetition. In fact, it is a theological impoverishment, caused by many teachers.

This type of portrayal is typical in monasteries with what are known as thousand-Buddha walls, and they frequently appear as a thangka theme.

The positive effect of this numerousness is equal to the endless circling of a prayer wheel that contains a mantra such as OM MANI PADME HUM, and which people turn, repeating the prayer over and over.

This thangka most closely resembles a thousand-Buddha wall. The central Buddha, Shakyamuni, is sitting on the Six-Ornament Throne of Enlightenment, in bhumisparshamudra and is repeated over and over, in identical fashion, in a long series.

Below his throne, can be seen the intertwined form of the Buddhist symbols of fortune, ashtamangala, the eight good luck tokens.

Click Here to View the Thangka Painting along with its Brocade

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