This thangka depicts Sakyamuni in the center surrounded by episodes from a total of fifty tales of his former lives(Jataka). The first thirty-five tales, starting with the story of how he gave up his life for a starving tigress and her cubs(top left), are taken from Aryasura's Jatakamala, while the remaining episodes are based on a collection of ones hundred jataka tales compiled by Karma Rang-byung-rdo-rje, which consists of thirty-five tales found in the Jatakamala together with an additional sixty-five tales. Since the present thangka depicts exactly half of these, it probably formed a pair with another thangka.
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