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The life of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, has been the subject of several
films A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
.


History

The first known film about the life of Buddha was ''Buddhadev'' (English title: ''Lord Buddha'') which was produced by the well-known Indian filmmaker
Dadasaheb Phalke Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (Pronunciation: ̪ʱuɳɖiɾaːd͡ʒ pʰaːɭke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke () (30 April 1870 – 16 February 1944), was an Indian producer-director-screenwriter, known as "the Father of Indian cinema". His de ...
(1870–1944) in 1923. Two years later, another important Buddha film was released, ''The Light of Asia'' (Hindi title: ''
Prem Sanyas ''Prem Sanyas'' (''The Light of Asia'') (''Die Leuchte Asiens'' in German) is a 1925 silent film, directed by Franz Osten and Himansu Rai. It was adapted from the book, '' The Light of Asia'' (1879) in verse, by Edwin Arnold, based on the lif ...
''). This movie was made by the German filmmaker
Franz Osten Franz Osten (23 December 1876 in Munich – 2 December 1956) was a Bavarian filmmaker who along with Himansu Rai was among the first retainers of Bombay Talkies. Osten partnered with Rai on a number of India's earliest blockbuster films lik ...
(1875–1956).
Himansu Rai Himanshu Rai (1892 – 16 May 1940), one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, is best known as the founder of the studio in 1934, along with Devika Rani. He was associated with a number of movies, including ''Goddess'' (1922), ''The Light of Asia ...
(1892–1940) played the Buddha. Its title suggests that the script was based on the book ''
The Light of Asia ''The Light of Asia'', or ''The Great Renunciation'' (''Mahâbhinishkramana''), is a book by Sir Edwin Arnold. The first edition of the book was published in London in July 1879. In the form of a narrative poem, the book endeavours to describ ...
'' composed by the British poet
Sir Edwin Arnold Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 183224 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work '' The Light of Asia''.Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...
in 1891. In fact, its contents deviate deliberately from Arnold's book. The film was a greater success in Europe than in India. It gives a somewhat romantic picture of the life of Buddha. ''Buddhadev'' as well as ''The Light of Asia'' were
silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
s. On March 20, 1952, a Japanese feature film representing the life of Buddha had its premiere, '' Dedication of the Great Buddha''. Director
Teinosuke Kinugasa was a Japanese filmmaker. He was born in Kameyama, Mie Prefecture and died in Kyoto. Kinugasa won the 1954 Palme d'or at the Cannes Film Festival for '' Gate of Hell''. Biography Kinugasa began his career as an onnagata (actor specializing in ...
(1896–1982) directed the picture under the Japanese film company Daiei Eiga. It was nominated for the
1953 Cannes Film Festival The 6th Cannes Film Festival was held from 15 to 29 April 1953. The Grand Prix of the Festival went to ''The Wages of Fear'' by Henri-Georges Clouzot. The festival opened with ''Horizons sans fin'' by Jean Dréville. During the opening ceremony ...
. Another film about Buddha was a
documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
entitled ''Gotama the Buddha''. It was released by the government of India in 1957 as part of the Buddha's 2500th birthday celebration. Rajbans Khanna acted as director and Bimal Roy as producer. It got an honorable mention at the Cannes film festival in 1957. It is a black-and-white film consisting of beautiful images of natural environments, archeological sites, reliefs and paintings, ancient ones from Ajanta as well as modern ones accompanied by a
voice over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...
relating the history of Buddha. The film ''Angulimal'' (1960) was not directly based on the life of Buddha, but on the life of a dacoit and killer who used to loot and kill innocent people and cut off their fingers and who made a garland of such fingers to wear around his neck, thus he got the name Angulimal (Angluli: finger, mala: garland). The film depicts an incident where the dreaded dacoit once met the Buddha when Buddha was passing by a forest and goes ahead to kill him, but was corrected by the compassion of Buddha. The fifth film about Buddha was a Japanese one, ''Shaka'', produced by Kenji Misumi in 1961. It was shown in the USA in 1963 under the title ''Buddha''. On February 13, 1964, a Korean film about the life of the Buddha had its premiere, ''Seokgamoni'', the Korean translation of the Sanskrit ''Shakyamuni'', which in
Mahayana Buddhism ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...
is the term for the historical Buddha. In 1997 the Indian producer G.A. Sheshagiri Rao made a Buddha film. It was simply entitled ''Buddha''. This one did not roll in cinemas, but it was only sold on DVD. This one is also the longest movie about Buddha, as it consists of five DVDs with approximately 180 minutes film each. In 2008, K. Raja Sekhar produced another Buddha film entitled '' Tathagata Buddha''. The original film was in Telugu, but later it was dubbed in Hindi. This film relates Buddha's life story until its end, his ''parinirvana''. The film is available on DVD. It is known that Buddhists in countries like Sri Lanka and Burma abhor the very idea of any human being impersonating the Buddha in a film. After its release in 1925 ''The Light of Asia'' was banned in Sri Lanka and the Malay States (contemporary West Malaysia).Rachel Dwyer, ''Filming the Gods: Religion and Indian Cinema'', London ''et al.'': Routledge, p. 28.


List of films on the life of Buddha


See also

*
Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
*
Pali Canon The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. During ...
&
Early Buddhist Texts Early Buddhist texts (EBTs), early Buddhist literature or early Buddhist discourses are parallel texts shared by the early Buddhist schools. The most widely studied EBT material are the first four Pali Nikayas, as well as the corresponding Chines ...
* ''
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta The ''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta'' (Pali; Sanskrit: ''Dharmacakrapravartana Sūtra''; English: ''The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of the Dharma Sutta'' or ''Promulgation of the Law Sutta'') is a Buddhist text that is considered by Buddhists t ...
'' * '' Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta'' * '' Samaññaphala Sutta'' * '' Mahaparinibbana Sutta'' *
Physical characteristics of the Buddha There are no extant representations of the Buddha represented in artistic form until roughly the 2nd century CE, probably due to the prominence of aniconism in Buddhism in the earliest extant period of Buddhist devotional statuary and bas relief ...
*
Relics associated with Buddha According to the '' Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta'' ( Sutta 16 of the '' Dīgha Nikāya''), after attaining ''parinirvana'', the body of Buddha was cremated and the ashes divided among his lay followers. Division of the relics According to the '' ...
*
Lumbini Lumbinī ( ne, लुम्बिनी, IPA=ˈlumbini , "the lovely") is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Lumbini Province in Nepal. It is the place where, according to Buddhist tradition, Queen Mahamayadevi gave birth ...
, Bodhgaya,
Sarnath Sarnath (Hindustani pronunciation: aːɾnaːtʰ also referred to as Sarangnath, Isipatana, Rishipattana, Migadaya, or Mrigadava) is a place located northeast of Varanasi, near the confluence of the Ganges and the Varuna rivers in Uttar Pr ...
&
Kushinagar Kushinagar ( Hindustani: or ; Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is a town in the Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is an important and popular Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained ''parinirvana''. Etym ...
*
Great Renunciation The Great Renunciation or Great Departure is the traditional term for the departure of Gautama Buddha ( BCE) from his palace at Kapilavastu to live a life as an ascetic ( sa, śrāmaṇa, italic=yes, pi, sāmaṇa, italic=yes). It is called t ...
&
Four sights The four sights are four events described in the legendary account of Gautama Buddha's life which led to his realization of the impermanence and the ultimate dissatisfaction of conditioned existence. According to this legend, before these encounte ...
*
Leela Attitude Leela attitude ( th, ปางลีลา; ) is an attitude of Buddha in Thai art of which the Buddha is stepping with his right foot and his right hand swinging and the other hand put towards to the front. The attitude is sometimes called the ' ...
* Māravijaya Attitude *
Meditation Attitude Meditation Attitude (Buddhism) ( Khmer: ព្រះពុទ្ធសម្មាធិ, ''preah pud (buddha) samathi'', th, ปางสมาธิ; ), also known as meditating Buddha, is an attitude of Buddha in Thai, Burmese, Khmer, Lao, ...
*
Naga Prok Attitude ''Naga Prok'' attitude ( th, ปางนาคปรก; ), translated as "sheltered-by-the-naga Buddha", is an attitude of Buddha in Burmese, Khmer, Lao and Thai art in which the Buddha, seated in either the meditation or maravijaya attitude, i ...
* '' The Life of Buddha'' * '' The Buddha and His Dhamma'' * ''
Angulimala (2003 film) ''Angulimala'' ( th, italic=yes, องคุลิมาล, or Ongkulimal; ) is a 2003 Thai fantasy-adventure- drama film based on the Buddhist-scripture story of Angulimala as interpreted by the director and actors of the film. The film is di ...
'' *
Knowing Buddha Knowing Buddha (or the Knowing Buddha Organization, KBO) is a Buddhist advocacy group based in Thailand. It campaigns against disrespectful uses of images of the Buddha, and lobbies for laws to protect Buddhism in Thailand. KBO was established in ...


References

{{inc-film, date=October 2021