Jātaka and avadāna stories belong to the staples of Buddhist narrative literature. While most jātakas follow a relatively stable narrative template, they also allow for some variation depending on their time and place of composition and the audiences they are meant to address. Jātaka stories have been told and preserved in a variety of languages and literary forms, from simple prose narratives to complex poems or visual representations. This article focuses on Tibetan adaptations of the jātaka genre. It begins with a brief survey of jātaka stories translated from Sanskrit or Chinese and contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon, and then moves on to investigate one specific jātaka cycle composed in Tibet within the Bka’ gdams pa school of Tibetan Buddhism. The frame story is of particular interest, as this is where the Tibetan narrators are perhaps at their most innovative. In these Bka’ gdams pa jātakas, the narrative frame is shifted from India to Tibet, and the main characters of the frame story are newly converted Tibetan Buddhists and their Indian teacher. This highly original appropriation of the jātaka genre demonstrates the important role of narrative literature in the Tibetan adoption and adaptation of Buddhism.
目次
Abstract 145 Keywords 145 1. Introduction: Jātaka and Avadāna Stories 146 2. Tibetan Translations and Adaptations 148 3. The Jātakas of the Bka’ gdams glegs bam 151 4. Conclusion 165 Bibliography 166 Abbreviations 166 Primary Sources 166 Secondary Sources 167
