ject of Buddhist art, ritual, and performance, particu-
larly in THERAVADAcountries of Southeast Asia.
In brief, the story involves a prince named Vis ́van-
tara who demonstrates the virtue of selfless generosity
through a series of extraordinary gifts. First, he gives
away his kingdom’s most valuable elephant, an act that
angers the citizenry and causes his father, King
Samjaya, to reluctantly banish Vis ́vantara from the
kingdom. After giving away all of his material posses-
sions, Vis ́vantara embarks on a life of exile in the for-
est, accompanied by his wife and two children. When
a cruel brahmin asks for the children as servants,
Vis ́vantara willingly gives them away while his wife is
off gathering food. Shortly thereafter, another brahmin
supplicant asks for his wife, and Vis ́vantara again com-
plies. This last supplicant reveals himself to be the god
S ́akra in disguise and immediately returns Vis ́vantara’s
wife to him. Meanwhile, full of remorse, King Samjaya
ransoms Vis ́vantara’s children from the cruel brahmin
and then invites Vis ́vantara back from exile. In cele-
bration, S ́akra rains a shower of jewels from the sky.
Vis ́vantara never wavers from the harsh demands
of universal generosity—giving children, wife, and
material gifts to any and all who ask—yet everything
is restored to him in the end. The story thus highlights
the bodhisattva’s “perfection of generosity,” while also
offering its listeners the promise of karmic rewards.
Since Vis ́vantara loses his wife and children and be-
comes an ascetic in the forest (if only temporarily),
the story also calls to mind the monk’s renunciation
of the world, as well as the life-story of the Buddha.
Indeed, it has an especially close connection with the
latter, for the birth as Vis ́vantara is understood to be
the culmination of the Buddha’s BODHISATTVAcareer
and his last human rebirth before the final life as Sid-
dhartha Gautama. Moreover, when Siddhartha battles
against MARAunderneath the Tree of Enlightenment,
it is the merit acquired during his life as Prince Vis ́van-
tara that he invokes in order to secure Mara’s defeat
and thus attain buddhahood.
In line with its importance, the story of Vis ́vantara
has been a popular subject of sermons, rituals, folk op-
eras, dramas, and other forms of performance in many
Buddhist cultures. In Thailand, for example, the Pali
Vessantara-jatakais recited annually by monks during
the Thet Mahachat festival, an act understood to pro-
duce abundant spiritual merit.See also:Buddha, Life of the; Entertainment and Per-
formance; Folk Religion: An Overview; Folk Religion,
Southeast Asia; Paramita(Perfection)Bibliography
Collins, Steven. “The Vessantara Jataka.” In Nirvana and Other
Buddhist Felicities: Utopias of the Pali Imaginaire.Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Cone, Margaret, and Gombrich, Richard, trans. The Perfect Gen-
erosity of Prince Vessantara: A Buddhist Epic.Oxford: Claren-
don Press, 1977.REIKOOHNUMAVOWS. SeeOrdination; PreceptsVOWS