Buddhavamsa

Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Buddhavamsa

=Buddhavamsa= (The Chronicle of Buddhas)

The Buddhavamsa (also known as The Chronicle of Buddhas) describes the life of Gautama Buddha and of the twenty-four previous Buddhas who had prophesied his attainment of Buddhahood. It is the fourteenth book of the Khuddaka Nikaya.

The first chapter tells how Gautama Buddha, to demonstrate his supernormal knowledge, creates a jewelled walkway in the sky. In seeing this display, Sariputta asks the Buddha: "Of what kind, great Lord, supreme among men, was your resolve? At what time, wise one, was supreme Awakening aspired to by you? ... Of what kind, wise one, leader of the world, were your ten perfections? How were the higher perfections fulfilled, how the ultimate perfections?"

In response, the Buddha relays the remainder of the Buddhavamsa.

In the second chapter Gautama tells how in a distant past life as Sumedha, he received a prediction from the then Dipankara Buddha that "In the next era you will become a buddha named Shakyamuni.", and thought out the ten perfections he would need to practice. Chapters 3 through 26 are accounts of the twenty-four historical Buddhas who preceded Gautama Buddha, and the acts of merit that Gautama Buddha performed towards them in his previous lives.

Chapter 27 is an account of the life of Gautama Buddha.

Chapter 28 mentions three Buddhas that preceded Dipankara, as well as the future Buddha, Maitreya.

Chapter 29 tells of the distribution of the Buddha's relics after his death.