The Play in Full
Glossary
Toh 95
Degé Kangyur, vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha), folios 1.b–216.b
- Jinamitra
- Dānaśīla
- Munivarman
- Yeshé Dé
Imprint
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2013
Current version v 4.48.25 (2024)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.25.1
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.
This work is provided under the protection of a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution - Non-commercial - No-derivatives) 3.0 copyright. It may be copied or printed for fair use, but only with full attribution, and not for commercial advantage or personal compensation. For full details, see the Creative Commons license.
Table of Contents
Summary
The Play in Full tells the story of how the Buddha manifested in this world and attained awakening, as perceived from the perspective of the Great Vehicle. The sūtra, which is structured in twenty-seven chapters, first presents the events surrounding the Buddha’s birth, childhood, and adolescence in the royal palace of his father, king of the Śākya nation. It then recounts his escape from the palace and the years of hardship he faced in his quest for spiritual awakening. Finally the sūtra reveals his complete victory over the demon Māra, his attainment of awakening under the Bodhi tree, his first turning of the wheel of Dharma, and the formation of the very early saṅgha.
Acknowledgments
This text was translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche.
Cortland Dahl, Catherine Dalton, Hilary Herdman, Heidi Koppl, James Gentry, and Andreas Doctor translated the text from Tibetan into English. Andreas Doctor and Wiesiek Mical then compared the translations against the original Tibetan and Sanskrit, respectively. Finally, Andreas Doctor edited the translation and wrote the introduction.
The Dharmachakra Translation Committee would like to thank Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche for blessing this project, and Khenpo Sherap Sangpo for his generous assistance with the resolution of several difficult passages.
This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The generous sponsorship of 簡源震及家人江秀敏,簡暐如,簡暐丞 Chien YuanChen (Dharma Das) and his wife, daughter, and son for work on this sūtra is gratefully acknowledged.
Text Body
The Play in Full
Colophon
Colophon to the Sanskrit Edition
Colophon to the Tibetan Translation
This was taught and translated by the Indian preceptors Jinamitra, Dānaśīla, and Munivarman, and the translator-editor Bandé Yeshé Dé, who proofed and finalized the translation.
Bibliography
Source Texts
’phags pa rgya cher rol pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryalalitavistaranāmamahāyānasūtra). Toh 95, Degé Kangyur vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha), folios 1b–216b.
’phags pa rgya cher rol pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–2009, vol 46, pp. 3–434.
Foucaux, Phillipe Édouard. Rgya Tch’er Rol Pa ou Développement des Jeux, Contenant l’Histoire du Bouddha Çakya-mouni. Première Partie—Texte Tibétain. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1847.
Hokazono, Kōichi (1994). Raritavisutara no Kenkyu. Volume 1 [study of Lalitavistara, chs. 1–14]. Tokyo: Daitō Shuppansha, 1994.
———— (2019a). Raritavisutara no Kenkyu. Volume 2 [study of Lalitavistara, chs. 15–21]. Tokyo: Daitō Shuppansha, 2019.
———— (2019b). Raritavisutara no Kenkyu. Volume 3 [study of Lalitavistara, chs. 22–27]. Tokyo: Daitō Shuppansha, 2019.
Lefmann, Salomon. Lalita Vistara. Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1882.
Mitra, R. L. (1853–1877). The Lalita Vistara or Memoirs of the Early Life of S’a’kya Siñha. Bibliotheca Indica: A Collection of Oriental Works, Old Series, nos. 51, 73, 143, 144, 145, 237. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1853–1877.
Secondary Sources
Bays, Gwendolyn. The Voice of the Buddha, The Beauty of Compassion: The Lalitavistara Sutra. Tibetan Translation Series, vol. 2. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1983.
Foucaux, Phillipe Édouard (1848). Rgya Tch’er Rol Pa ou Développement des Jeux, Contenant l’Histoire du Bouddha Çakya-mouni: Traduit sur la version Tibétaine du Bkahhgyour, et revu sur l’original Sanscrit (Lalitavistara). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1848.
———— (1870). Étude sur le Lalita Vistara pour une édition critique du texte sanskrit, précédée d’ un coup d’oeil sur la publication des livres bouddhiques en Europe et dans l’Inde. Paris: Maisonneuve, 1870.
———— (1884). Le Lalitavistara, Développement des Jeux: l’histoire traditionnelle de la vie du Bouddha Çakyamuni. Première partie. Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. 6 Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1884.
———— (1892). Le Lalitavistara, Développement des Jeux: l’histoire traditionnelle de la vie du Bouddha Çakyamuni. Seconde partie: notes, variantes, et index. Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. 19. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1892.
Lefmann, Salomon (1874). Lalitavistara: Erzählung von dem Leben und der Lehre des Çâkya Simha. Berlin: Dümmler, 1874.
Lenz, Robert. “Analyse du Lalita-Vistara-Pourana, l’un des principaux ouvrages sacrés des Bouddhistes de l’Asie centrale, contenant la vie de leur prophète, et écrit en Sanscrit.” Bulletin Scientifique publié par l’Académie impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg I.7: 49–51; I.8: 57–63; I.9: 71–72; I.10: 75–78; I.11: 87–88; I.12: 92–96; I.13: 97–99. St. Petersburg: Académie impériale des sciences, 1836.
Miller, Robert. The Chapter on Schisms in the Saṅgha (Saṅghabhedavastu, Toh 1-17). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, forthcoming.
Mitra, R. L. (1881–1886). The Lalita Vistara or Memoirs of the Early Life of S’a’kya Siñha, Translated from the Original Sanskrit. Bibliotheca Indica: A Collection of Oriental Works, New Series, nos. 455, 473, 575. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1881–1886. Republished, Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1998.
Silk, Jonathan A. “Serious Play: Recent Scholarship on the Lalitavistara.” Indo-Iranian Journal 65: 267–301. Leiden: Brill, 2022.
Vaidya, P. L. Lalitavistara. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts, vol. 1. Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute, 1958.
Winternitz, Maurice (1927). “The Lalita-Vistara.” In A History of Indian Literature, Vol. 2, 249–56. 3rd ed. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1991.
Further Resources
Goswami, Bijoya. Lalitavistara. Bibliotheca Indica Series, vol. 320. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 2001.
Khosla, Sarla. Lalitavistara and the Evolution of Buddha Legend. New Delhi: Galaxy Publications, 1991.
Thomas, E. J. “The Lalitavistara and Sarvastivada.” Indian Historical Quarterly 16:2 (1940): 239–45.
Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
Attested in source text
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
Attested in other text
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
Attested in dictionary
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
Approximate attestation
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
Reconstruction from Tibetan phonetic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
Reconstruction from Tibetan semantic rendering
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
Source unspecified
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
Ābhāsvara
- ’od gsal
- འོད་གསལ།
- ābhāsvara
Able One
- thub pa
- ཐུབ་པ།
- muni
absorption
- ting nge ’dzin
- ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།
- samādhi
Acalamati
- blo gros mi gyo ba
- བློ་གྲོས་མི་གྱོ་བ།
- acalamati
Aḍakavatī
- lcang lo can
- ལྕང་ལོ་ཅན།
- aḍakavatī
Āditya
- nyi ma
- ཉི་མ།
- āditya
aggression
- khro ba
- ཁྲོ་བ།
- krodha
Airāvaṇa
- sa srung gi bu
- ས་སྲུང་གི་བུ།
- airāvaṇa
ājīvika
- kun tu ’tsho ba pa
- ཀུན་ཏུ་འཚོ་བ་པ།
- ājīvika
Ājñātakauṇḍinya
- kun shes kau N+Di nya
- ཀུན་ཤེས་ཀཽ་ཎྜི་ཉ།
- ājñātakauṇḍinya
Akṣobhyarāja
- mi ’khrugs rgyal
- མི་འཁྲུགས་རྒྱལ།
- akṣobhyarāja
Alambuśā
- rna cha
- རྣ་ཆ།
- alambuśā
all-ground
- kun gzhi
- ཀུན་གཞི།
- ālaya
alms bowl
- lhung bzed
- ལྷུང་བཟེད།
- pātra
aloeswood
- a ga ru
- ཨ་ག་རུ།
- agaru
Amoghadarśin
- don yod mthong
- དོན་ཡོད་མཐོང་།
- amoghadarśin
Amogharāja
- don yod rgyal po
- དོན་ཡོད་རྒྱལ་པོ།
- amogharāja
Anāla
- tsan da ltar
- ཙན་ད་ལྟར།
- anāla
Ānanda
- kun dga’ bo
- ཀུན་དགའ་བོ།
- ānanda
Ānandita
- kun tu dga’ byed
- ཀུན་ཏུ་དགའ་བྱེད།
- ānandita
Anāthapiṇḍada
- mgon med zas sbyin
- མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན།
- anathapiṇḍada
Anavapta
- ma dros pa
- མ་དྲོས་པ།
- anavapta
Anavapta
- ma dros pa
- མ་དྲོས་པ།
- anavapta
Aṅgiras
- shes ldan
- ཤེས་ལྡན།
- aṅgiras
Aniruddha
- ma ’gags pa
- མ་འགགས་པ།
- aniruddha
Anivartin
- phyir mi ldog pa
- ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ།
- anivartin
Antaka
- bdud
- བདུད།
- antaka
Antarīkṣadeva
- sa bla’i lha
- ས་བླའི་ལྷ།
- antarīkṣadeva
Anumaineya
- rjes su dpag pa
- རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པ།
- anumaineya
Anupaśānta
- nye bar zhi ba
- ཉེ་བར་ཞི་བ།
- anupaśānta
Anurādhā
- lha mtshams
- ལྷ་མཚམས།
- anurādhā
Aparagodānīya
- ba lang spyod
- བ་ལང་སྤྱོད།
- aparagodānīya
Aparājitā
- mi pham
- མི་ཕམ།
- aparājitā
applications of mindfulness
- dran pa nye bar bzhag pa
- དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་བཞག་པ།
- smṛtyupasthāna
Apratihatanetra
- mig thogs pa med pa
- མིག་ཐོགས་པ་མེད་པ།
- apratihatanetra
Ārāḍa Kālāma
- sgyu rtsal shes kyi bu ring ’phur
- སྒྱུ་རྩལ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་བུ་རིང་འཕུར།
- ārāḍa kālāma
Arati
- dga’ can
- དགའ་ཅན།
- arati
Arciketu
- spos mchog
- སྤོས་མཆོག
- arciketu
Arcimat
- ’od ’phro can
- འོད་འཕྲོ་ཅན།
- arcimat
Ardra
- lag
- ལག
- ardra
Arjuna
- srid sgrub
- སྲིད་སྒྲུབ།
- arjuna
Arjuna
- srid sgrub
- སྲིད་སྒྲུབ།
- arjuna
Āruṇā
- skya rengs
- སྐྱ་རེངས།
- āruṇā
Āśā
- nyer gnas
- ཉེར་གནས།
- āśā
Āṣādhas
- chu smad
- ཆུ་སྨད།
- āṣādhas
Asita
- nag po
- ནག་པོ།
- asita
Aśleṣā
- nab so
- ནབ་སོ།
- aśleṣā
aśoka
- mya ngan med pa
- མྱ་ངན་མེད་པ།
- aśoka
- aśoka
aspiration
- smon lam
- སྨོན་ལམ།
- praṇidhāna
Aṣṭaṃga
- nub
- ནུབ།
- aṣṭaṃga
asura
- lha ma yin
- ལྷ་མ་ཡིན།
- asura
Aśvajit
- rta thul
- རྟ་ཐུལ།
- aśvajit
Aśvin
- tha skar
- ཐ་སྐར།
- aśvin
Aśvinī
- bra nye bsten
- བྲ་ཉེ་བསྟེན།
- aśvinī
Atimuktakamalā
- a ti mug ta ka’i phreng ba can
- ཨ་ཏི་མུག་ཏ་ཀའི་ཕྲེང་བ་ཅན།
- atimuktakamalā
Atyuccagāmin
- rab mthor gshegs
- རབ་མཐོར་གཤེགས།
- atyuccagāmin
Avabhāsakara
- snang byed
- སྣང་བྱེད།
- avabhāsakara
Avatāraprekṣin
- glags lta
- གླགས་ལྟ།
- avatāraprekṣin
awakened one
- sangs rgyas
- སངས་རྒྱས།
- buddha
Āyustejas
- ’brug sgra
- འབྲུག་སྒྲ།
- āyustejas
Balaguptā
- stobs sbed ma
- སྟོབས་སྦེད་མ།
- balaguptā
Bālāhaka
- sprin gyi shugs can
- སྤྲིན་གྱི་ཤུགས་ཅན།
- bālāhaka
bases of miraculous power
- rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa
- རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ།
- ṛddhipāda
- ṛddhipada
Bāṣpa
- rlangs pa
- རླངས་པ།
- bāṣpa
bayur tree
- dong ka’i shing
- དོང་ཀའི་ཤིང་།
- karṇikāra
beneficial activity
- don spyad pa
- དོན་སྤྱད་པ།
- arthakriyā
beryl
- be du rya
- བེ་དུ་རྱ།
- vaiḍūrya
bhadraṃkara gem
- rin po che bzang byed
- རིན་པོ་ཆེ་བཟང་བྱེད།
- ratnabhadraṃkara
Bhadrasena
- sde bzang po
- སྡེ་བཟང་པོ།
- bhadrasena
Bhadrika
- bzang po
- བཟང་པོ།
- bhadrika
Bhadrika
- bzang po
- བཟང་པོ།
- bhadrika
Bhaiṣajyarāja
- sman gyi rgyal
- སྨན་གྱི་རྒྱལ།
- bhaiṣajyarāja
Bhallika
- bzang po
- བཟང་པོ།
- bhallika
Bharaṇī
- bra nye
- བྲ་ཉེ།
- bharaṇī
Bhayaṃkara
- ’jigs byed
- འཇིགས་བྱེད།
- bhayaṃkara
Bhīmasena
- ’jigs sde
- འཇིགས་སྡེ།
- bhīmasena
Bhṛgu
- rab ’gro
- རབ་འགྲོ།
- bhṛgu
bhūta
- ’byung po
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- bhūta
bimba
- bim pa
- བིམ་པ།
- bimba
Bimbisāra
- gzugs can snying po
- གཟུགས་ཅན་སྙིང་པོ།
- bimbisāra
blessed one
- bcom ldan ’das
- བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
- bhagavān
Bodhi
- byang chub
- བྱང་ཆུབ།
- bodhi
Bodhi tree
- byang chub kyi shing
- byang chub shing
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཤིང་།
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཤིང་།
- bodhivṛkṣa
bodhisattva
- byang chub sems dpa’
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།
- bodhisattva
Brahmā
- tshangs pa
- ཚངས་པ།
- brahmā
Brahma Realm
- tshangs ris
- ཚངས་རིས།
- brahmakāyika
Brahmadatta
- tshangs pas byin
- ཚངས་པས་བྱིན།
- brahmadatta
Brahmadatta
- tshangs pas byin
- ཚངས་པས་བྱིན།
- brahmadatta
Brahmamati
- tshangs pa’i blo gros
- ཚངས་པའི་བློ་གྲོས།
- brahmamati
brahmarṣi
- tshangs pa’i drang srong
- ཚངས་པའི་དྲང་སྲོང་།
- brahmarṣi
Brahmā’s Entourage
- tshangs ’khor
- ཚངས་འཁོར།
- brahmapariṣadya
Brahmatejas
- sgra snyan
- སྒྲ་སྙན།
- brahmatejas
Brahmottara
- tshangs mchog
- ཚངས་མཆོག
- brahmottara
branches of awakening
- byang chub kyi yan lag
- byang chub yan lag
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཡན་ལག
- bodhyaṅga
buddha
- sangs rgyas
- སངས་རྒྱས།
- buddha
Caityaka
- ’od ’phro’i tog
- འོད་འཕྲོའི་ཏོག
- caityaka
campaka
- tsam pa ka
- ཙམ་པ་ཀ
- campaka
Campakavarṇā
- me tog tsam pa ka’i kha dog
- མེ་ཏོག་ཙམ་པ་ཀའི་ཁ་དོག
- campakavarṇā
Candana
- tsan dan
- ཙན་དན།
- candana
Candra
- zla ba
- ཟླ་བ།
- candra
Candraprabha
- zla ba’i ’od
- ཟླ་བའི་འོད།
- candraprabha
Candrasūryajihmīkaraprabha
- nyi zla zil du rlag par byed pa’i ’od dang ldan pa
- ཉི་ཟླ་ཟིལ་དུ་རླག་པར་བྱེད་པའི་འོད་དང་ལྡན་པ།
- candrasūryajihmīkaraprabha
cāṣa bird
- tsa sha
- ཙ་ཤ།
- cāṣa
celestial maiden
- lha’i bu mo
- lha yi bu mo
- lha mo
- ལྷའི་བུ་མོ།
- ལྷ་ཡི་བུ་མོ།
- ལྷ་མོ།
- devakanyā
- apsaras
celestial palace
- gzhal med khang
- གཞལ་མེད་ཁང་།
- vimāna
Chanda
- dun pa
- དུན་པ།
- chanda
Citrā
- ga pa
- ག་པ།
- citrā
clay kettledrum
- rdza rnga
- རྫ་རྔ།
- mṛdaṃga
Cloudless Heaven
- sprin med
- སྤྲིན་མེད།
- anabhraka
conch shell
- dung
- དུང་།
- śaṅkha
conscientious
- bag yod
- བག་ཡོད།
- apramāda
cool pavillion
- bsil khang
- བསིལ་ཁང་།
- harmya
craving
- sred pa
- སྲེད་པ།
- tṛṣṇā
crown cannot be seen
- spyi gtsug bltar mi mthong ba
- སྤྱི་གཙུག་བལྟར་མི་མཐོང་བ།
- anavalokitamūrdhatā
crown extension
- gtsug tor
- གཙུག་ཏོར།
- uṣṇīṣa
- uṣṇīṣaśīrṣa
cuckoo bird
- khyu byug
- ཁྱུ་བྱུག
- kokila
Cunda
- skul byed
- སྐུལ་བྱེད།
- cunda
Dānaśīla
- dA na shI la
- དཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལ།
- dānaśīla
Daṇḍaka
- dan da ka
- དན་ད་ཀ
- daṇḍaka
Daṇḍapāṇi
- lag na be con can
- ལག་ན་བེ་ཅོན་ཅན།
- daṇḍapāṇi
Datṛmadaṇḍika
- gdul ba’i be con can
- གདུལ་བའི་བེ་ཅོན་ཅན།
- datṛmadaṇḍika
Deer Park
- ri dags kyi nags
- རི་དགས་ཀྱི་ནགས།
- mṛgadāva
demigod
- lha ma yin
- ལྷ་མ་ཡིན།
- asura
demon
- bdud
- བདུད།
- māra
dependent origination
- rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba
- རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ།
- pratītyasamutpāda
Devadatta
- lhas byin
- ལྷས་བྱིན།
- devadatta
devarṣi
- lha’i drang srong
- ལྷའི་དྲང་སྲོང་།
- devarṣi
Devī
- lha mo
- ལྷ་མོ།
- devī
Dhaniṣṭhā
- mon gru
- མོན་གྲུ།
- dhaniṣṭhā
dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
Dharaṇīśvararāja
- gzung kyi dbang phyug rgyal po
- གཟུང་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྒྱལ་པོ།
- dharaṇīśvararāja