Place · jātaka site & monastery · Nepal
Namobuddha
Also known as Namobuddha, Namo Buddha, Takmo Lujin, Mahasattva
A hilltop stupa south-east of the Kathmandu valley marking the place tradition holds the Buddha, in an earlier birth as Prince Mahasattva, gave his body to a starving tigress and her cubs. It is one of the three great Buddhist sites of Nepal with Swayambhu and Boudha.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 27.583, 85.550
Worth knowing
The same jataka is localised at Taxila, at Mankiala in the Punjab and here, which is the ordinary condition of Buddhist sacred geography: a story attaches to whatever hill a community needs it to attach to, and three countries now each have the place it happened. The Thrangu monastery below it was built after 1959 by Tibetan exiles.
Connections (1)
- Shared sacred geographyMankiala stupa
Namobuddha, Mankiala and Taxila each mark the place the Bodhisattva gave his body to the tigress, and all three show it as local geography rather than as parable. Three countries now hold the site of one story, which is the ordinary condition of Buddhist sacred geography: the narrative attaches to whatever hill a community needs it to attach to.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Namobuddha”. The Suvarṇaprabhāsa and Jātakamālā versions of the tigress story; Nepal Department of Archaeology records.
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