Seated crowned Buddha with four scenes of his life

Eight Scenes of the Buddha’s Life
In the later Buddhist traditions of northern India, eight particular episodes of the Buddha’s life and the eight sites where they took place were singled out for special attention. Occasionally the scenes were represented with several figures and props associated with the story. Often, however, they were abbreviated to a Buddha image with only one other figure, prop, or symbol to identify the specific scene. Presumably the standard eight scenes were so familiar that many Buddhists could recognize them from only one or two clues.
As you will see in the artworks nearby, sometimes scenes from the standard set of eight are depicted singly. Sometimes four, five, or all eight scenes are depicted together in one sculpture or painting.
These standard eight scenes of the Buddha’s life, and the sites in the Buddha’s homeland in northeastern India where they took place, are:
• Birth (Lumbini)
• The victory over the demon Mara (Bodhgaya)
• The first preaching (Sarnath)
• The miracles of Shravasti (Shravasti)
• The descent from Indra’s heaven after the Buddha had preached to his deceased mother (Sankashya)
• The monkey’s offering (Rajgir)
• The taming of the enraged elephant (Vaishali)
• Death (Kushinagara)

In northeastern India eight specific episodes of the Buddha’s life came to have special importance.
Representations of these are displayed here along the low wall to the right.

, The central image here represents the Buddha defeating the demon Mara by touching the earth, calling upon her to affirm his fitness for buddhahood. The earth goddess is shown in miniature at the middle of the base beneath the lotus throne. Other scenes from the life of the Buddha surround the central one. Originally there would have been eight, but here the top three are missing. How they were broken off is not known to us. Those remaining show:
• (lower left) the mother of the Buddha-to-be giving birth
• (upper left) the Buddha’s descent from Indra’s heaven after the Buddha had preached to his deceased mother
• (upper right) the Buddha taming an enraged elephant
• (lower right) the Buddha accepting an offering from a monkey.
To learn why the Buddha is wearing a crown, see the label to your left.