ACCUMULATING MERIT: A RITUAL TAI BANNER DEPICTING THE VESSANTARA JATAKA – TAASA Review June 2020
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This article was originally found in the June 2020 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 29, Issue 2, Page 16).
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Gill Green T he Vessantara jataka tells the story of the penultimate life of the Buddha-to-be, who would next be reborn as Siddharta Gautama.
In Thailand’s northeastern villages, home to many of Tai ethnicity, this birth story is celebrated annually at the beginning of the dry season in a quite distinctive manner.
A long cotton banner painted with consecutive scenes from the jataka is paraded through the village and then carried into the wat...