Devotion: Image, Recitation, and Celebration of the Vessantara Epic in Northeast Thailand

• Six Vessantara Jataka picture scrolls published in full length for the very first time

• In depth essays explore a contemporary multimedia celebration of an ancient Buddhist text

• An exciting journey into unknown stories and narrative structure

The Vessantara Jataka is the tale of Buddha's last life, before he was reborn as the historical Buddha 2,500 years ago. In this earlier existence as Prince Vessantara he demonstrated evidence of the highest virtue that constitutes an enlightened one: generosity. Vessantara gave away everything dear to him in the climactic scene of the story even his wife and children. In North-East Thailand the Vessantara tale is celebrated annually as Bun Phra Wet. Pha Phra Wet - 'Vessantara cloths' - form the visual framework for this festival; they are hand-painted scrolls, which can reach lengths of up to one hundred meters. Devotion presents, for the very first time, a selection of six full-length Vessantara scrolls and explores a contemporary multimedia celebration of an ancient Buddhist text.
This book accompanies an exhibition, to be held in the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich (CH), June 20, 2017 to April 4, 2018.