Jatakamalas,2nd revised edition. Tokyo: International In-
stitute for Buddhist Studies, 1992.Hahn, Michael, ed. Haribhatta’s Jatakamala.Wiesbaden, Ger-
many: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002.
Khoroche, Peter, trans. Once the Buddha Was a Monkey: Arya
S ́ura’s Jatakamala.Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1989.
PETERKHOROCHEJEWELS
Jewels occupy important narrative and ritual spaces
throughout the history of Buddhism. Buddhism, inso-
far as it constitutes the faith dedicated to elimination
of desire, would seem at first consideration to be a re-
ligion at variance with objects that are culturally most
directly associated with wealth. However, from an early
stage Buddhists incorporated jewels into their teach-
ing as part of a discourse on value.
The Buddha routinely employed the metaphor of
the jewel (ratna) in a variety of sutras to refer to the
unlimited value of enlightened wisdom, a value that
can be seen as represented in the form of an infinitely
beautiful and valuable jewel that at the same time
stands in contrast to the limitations of material jewels.
Likewise, the jewel was often used as a metaphor to de-
pict the conquest of death that is accomplished in Bud-
dhist liberation—an item that, as with the metaphor
of the diamond (vajra), represents absolute solidity,
beauty, and permanence. Both of these metaphors
are represented in their quintessential form in the
Gandhavyuha-sutra(Flower Garland Scripture), which
elaborately deploys jewels and other glittering meta-
phors to illustrate enlightened vision of the absolute
character of the interpenetration of all phenomena
(dharma). While such discourse was often abstract, the
jewel was also used in the phrase “Three Jewels” (tri-
ratna) to refer to the Buddhist tradition in its three ba-
sic, most treasured, aspects: Buddha, his teaching
(dharma), and his community (SAN ̇GHA).
Jewels have also been an essential feature in icono-
graphic representations of celestial buddhas and BOD-
HISATTVASof the Mahayanist and tantric traditions.
While the glittering character of the jewels and gold of
the Buddha AMITABHA’s Pure Land Sukhavatare well
known, a series of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other
beings protective of Buddhism are routinely repre-
sented as carrying one or more jewels, which consti-
tutes their so-called samaya(attribute). Among such
figures are the bodhisattvas Ksitigarbha (Chinese,
Dizang; Japanese, Jizo) and Avalokites ́vara (Chinese,
Guanyin; Japanese, Kannon), the female protective de-
ity S ́r-mahadev(Japanese, Kichijoten), and figures of
esoteric Buddhism, such as the Jewel Buddha Rat-
nasambhava. The so-called seven jewels (saptaratna),
likewise, represent the splendid treasures of the ideal
wheel-turning Buddhist king: the wheel, the white ele-
phant, the deep blue horse, the sacred jewel, the jewel
woman, the merchant-artisan, and the military com-
mander. The same term was also used to refer to seven
precious substances used in the construction of elab-
orate Buddhist edifices, such as brilliant STUPAS.
The jewel was also the subject of the more elaborate
discourse of the “wish-fulfilling jewel” (cintamani),
which represents the absolute merit (punya) offered
by the Buddhist dharma and scriptures. While origi-
nally an image, the term in some East Asian tantric
traditions came to be venerated as an object of eso-
teric ritual, and was even regarded by some in me-
dieval Japanese Shingon as equivalent with Buddha
relics—and the greatest treasure of Shingon—or the
product of alchemical production that used relics and
other precious substances, and was coveted by the
sovereign.See also:Huayan Jing; Kingship; Refuges; Relics and
Relics CultsBibliography
Abe Yasuro. “Hoju to oken: chusei to mikkyogirei” (Jewels and
royal authority: esoteric Buddhist rites and the medieval era).
In Iwanami koza toyoshiso16: Nihon shiso2.Tokyo: Iwanami
Shoten, 1989.
Cleary, Thomas, trans. The Flower Ornament Scripture.Boulder,
CO: Shambhala, 1984.
Cook, Francis D. Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.
Go yuigo(attributed to Kukai). Taishoshinshudaizokyo77, no.
2431.
Ruppert, Brian D. Jewel in the Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power
in Early Medieval Japan.Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer-
sity Asia Center and Harvard University Press, 2000.
Uehara Kazu. “Higashi ajia no bukkyobijutsu ni mirareru mani
hyogen no shoso” (Forms of expression of cinta[-manl] as
seen in East Asian Buddhist art). In Kodai no saishiki to shiso:
higashi ajia no naka no nihon,ed. Nakanishi Susumu. Tokyo:
Kadokawa shoten, 1991.BRIANO. RUPPERTJEWELS