Description
Siddhattha as a Bodhisattva on the Banks of the Neranjara (detail), from a Burmese manuscript, c. 1790s1830s "The Bodhisattva accepted the offering of a bowl of milk-rice and ate it on the banks of the river Neranjara. He then set the golden bowl afloat, saying, ‘If I am to become a Buddha today, may this bowl float upstream.' This it did." This image comes from one of two magnificent Burmese manuscripts once owned by the diplomat and Orientalist Henry Burney, British Resident of the Court of Ava from 1830 to 1837. Among the most prized items in the British Library's collections, the concertina-fold manuscripts (parabaiks) are surveyed and their story told in Patricia M. Herbert's Life of the Buddha (Pomegranate, in association with the British Library, 2005). - INDIVIDUAL ITEM RRP £1.99
