Encyclopedia of Buddhism

the Buddha’s biographies, such images serve as objects
of meditation, contemplation, and ritual reminders of
the Buddha.

Many Buddhist rituals invoke salient idioms from
the Buddha’s biography. For example, Burmese Bud-
dhists, especially the Shan people, celebrate a boy’s
temporary initiation as a novice with a ritual reenact-
ment of Siddha
rtha’s splendorous life and departure
from the palace. In Thailand, stories of the Buddha’s
life as Vessantara are chanted on ritual occasions and
at the behest of devout lay patrons. Images of the Bud-
dha are consecrated through an eye-opening cere-
mony, and a deferential protocol of behavior is
required in front of consecrated images; one behaves
as if one were in the Buddha’s presence. Lastly, pil-
grimages are undertaken to sites that commemorate
episodes of the Buddha’s life, as well as places that con-
tain relics of the Buddha, such as BODHGAYA
in north-
east India, the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

Biographies of the Buddha also give voice to local
interpretations, and the Buddhist biographical genre
includes numerous apocryphal ja
takastories. Count-
less stories about the Buddha’s many lives enrich the
biographical idiom in local Buddhist traditions, chron-
icles, myths, and religious sites, thereby linking persons
and places with the Buddha’s pristine early commu-
nity. One way this occurs is through relating universal
biographical themes to particular local features. For ex-
ample, the colossal Burmese Maha
muni was con-
structed, according to local myth, in the Buddha’s
likeness, and it is said to have been enlivened by him
during a visit to the region now known as Arakan. Sto-
ries like this serve to legitimate not only the particular
image, but, more significantly, all of its royal patrons
and protectors through Burmese dynastic history. The
Maha
muni complex further links the geographical and
cultural periphery of lower Burma to central Buddhist
concepts in the Buddha’s biography (Schober). In the
Therava
da tradition, apocryphal stories, local tradi-
tions, and peripheral locations are thus brought to-
gether to construct and perpetuate biographical
extensions of the Buddha’s lives.

In the traditions of Maha
ya
na and VAJRAYA
NABud-
dhism, we find many life stories of other buddhas, bod-
hisattvas, and embodiments of enlightenment from the
past, present, and even future. Such an expansion of
the biographical genre made it possible to integrate
preexisting religious and cultural values into Buddhist
belief systems. In China, for example, Buddhist BI-
OGRAPHIES OFEMINENTMONKS(GAOSENG ZHUAN) are

informed by biographical conventions borrowed from

the indigenous Confucian tradition. Like their coun-

terparts in other branches of Buddhism, biographies

of eminent Chinese monks take up familiar themes

(Kieschnick). Asceticism, miracle working, healing,

and scholarship commonly figure in biographies of

eminent monks to underscore how their lives emulate

and perpetuate extraordinary events in the biography

of the Buddha. Such stories emphasize links between

teachers and their disciples in order to construct a lin-

eage that, at least in principle, is believed to establish

a historical connection to the idealized time of the

Buddha. Biographies of famous monks also commonly

recount miracles associated with relics or they describe

extraordinary practices with which charismatic monks

have been credited.

In this way, Buddhist sacred biography is a genre

that seeks to demonstrate that the accomplishments

that eminent monks achieve in later periods share fea-

tures in common with the words and acts of the

founder of Buddhism. Buddhist sacred biography thus

locates the Buddha’s life story with specific Buddhist

communities. By linking the universal with geographic

peripheries and particular cultures, Buddhist biogra-

phy engages the religious imagination of Buddhists and

contributes to the continuing vitality of the tradition.

See also:Buddha, Life of the, in Art; Ja
taka, Illustra-

tions of

Bibliography

Kieschnick, John. The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Me-

dieval Chinese Hagiography.Honolulu: University of Hawaii

Press, 1997.

Reynolds, Frank E. “The Many Lives of the Buddha.” In The Bi-

ographical Process: Studies in the History and Psychology of

Religion,ed. Frank E. Reynolds and Donald Capps. The

Hague, Netherlands: Mouton, 1976.

Schober, Juliane, ed. Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions

of South and Southeast Asia.Honolulu: University of Hawaii

Press, 1997.

JULIANESCHOBER

BKA’ BRGYUD (KAGYU)

Bka’ brgyud (pronounced Kagyu) may be translated as

“oral lineage” or “lineage of the Buddha’s word.” Many

traditions of Tibetan Buddhism use the term bka’

BKA’ BRGYUD(KAGYU)