{"type": "genre", "value": "jataka", "key": "genre:jataka", "label": "Jātaka · ชาดก", "noun": "genre", "browseCol": "genre", "note": "Birth-tales of the Buddha (chadok), incl. the Vessantara.", "priority": false, "profile": {"count": 1633, "priority": 0, "provinces": [{"value": "Phrae", "n": 443, "label": "Phrae"}, {"value": "Lampang", "n": 357, "label": "Lampang"}, {"value": "Chiang Mai", "n": 154, "label": "Chiang Mai"}, {"value": "Lamphun", "n": 149, "label": "Lamphun"}, {"value": "Nan", "n": 116, "label": "Nan"}, {"value": "Chiang Rai", "n": 106, "label": "Chiang Rai"}], "temples": [{"value": "Wat Sung Men", "n": 354, "label": "Wat Sung Men"}, {"value": "Wat Ban Luk", "n": 122, "label": "Wat Ban Luk"}, {"value": "Wat Lai Hin Luang", "n": 104, "label": "Wat Lai Hin Luang"}, {"value": "Wat Duang Di", "n": 51, "label": "Wat Duang Di"}, {"value": "Wat Phra That Lampang Luang", "n": 44, "label": "Wat Phra That Lampang Luang"}, {"value": "Wat Mueang Mo", "n": 44, "label": "Wat Mueang Mo"}], "scripts": [{"value": "tham_lanna", "n": 1529, "label": "Tham Lanna · อักษรธรรมล้านนา"}, {"value": "tham_lao", "n": 41, "label": "Tham Lao · อักษรธรรมลาว"}, {"value": "shan", "n": 39, "label": "Shan · อักษรไทใหญ่"}, {"value": "thai", "n": 18, "label": "Thai · อักษรไทย"}, {"value": "tham_lue", "n": 5, "label": "Tham Lue · อักษรธรรมลื้อ"}, {"value": "burmese", "n": 1, "label": "Burmese · อักษรพม่า"}], "languages": [{"value": "Pali and Lan Na", "n": 1442, "label": "Pali and Lan Na"}, {"value": "Monolingual Pali", "n": 89, "label": "Monolingual Pali"}, {"value": "Pali and Lao", "n": 34, "label": "Pali and Lao"}, {"value": "Pali and Thai", "n": 17, "label": "Pali and Thai"}, {"value": "Pali, Shan and Burmese", "n": 16, "label": "Pali, Shan and Burmese"}, {"value": "Pali and Shan", "n": 16, "label": "Pali and Shan"}], "materials": [{"value": "palm_leaf", "n": 1435, "label": "Palm-leaf · ใบลาน"}, {"value": "mulberry_paper", "n": 48, "label": "Mulberry paper (saa) · กระดาษสา"}, {"value": "khoi", "n": 19, "label": "Khoi paper · กระดาษข่อย"}], "date": {"min": 1471, "max": 2024, "dated": 1233}, "samples": ["Wohan siwicai phuk song", "Panca nibat wannana", "Sucawannacak luang phuk cet", "Sap pakinnaka phuk ton", "Sap tingsa nibat", "Wisati nibat", "Wohan nalata", "Pimpa pilap"]}, "lede": "Jātaka · ชาดก accounts for 1,633 catalogued manuscripts. It clusters in Phrae (27% of the corpus for this genre), ahead of Lampang and Chiang Mai. Nearly all (94%) are written in Tham Lanna · อักษรธรรมล้านนา script. By support it leans to palm-leaf · ใบลาน (88%) over mulberry paper (saa) · กระดาษสา (3%). Dated witnesses run 1471–2024 CE (1233 of 1,633 carry a date).", "findings": [{"slug": "chronologydeep-roots", "title": "The deepest roots in the collection", "gloss": "The ten earliest-dated manuscripts, reaching back to 1471 CE — the far anchor of the single continuous timeline that runs all the way to today's amulet stalls."}, {"slug": "scaleepic-length", "title": "The heavyweights: the longest manuscripts", "gloss": "The twelve longest texts by leaf count, led by one running to 1,046 leaves."}], "authored": {"exists": true, "status": "published", "title": "Jātaka", "see_also": ["genre:buddhist_canonical", "genre:liturgy_chanting"], "body_html": "<h2>What this is</h2><p><strong>Jātaka</strong> (Lanna <em>chadok</em>) are the birth-stories: tales of the Buddha&#x27;s previous lives as the Bodhisatta, working his way through the perfections across some five hundred existences. In the Pali canon they sit in the <em>Khuddaka-nikāya</em>, grouped by the number of verses each tale carries — the <em>nipāta</em>, which surfaces directly in the titles here (<em>Wisati nibat</em>, the twenty-verse group; <em>Panca nibat</em>; <em>Sap tingsa nibat</em>). But the Lanna jātaka corpus is wider than the canon. Its living heart is the <strong>paññāsa jātaka</strong>, the extra-canonical &quot;fifty births&quot; composed in mainland Southeast Asia, and above all the <strong>Mahāchat</strong> — the Vessantara, the Great Birth, whose annual recitation (<em>Thet Mahachat</em>) is one of the central preaching festivals of the northern year.</p><p>So while this is not a <em>wichaa</em> genre, it is not inert scripture either. These were the preacher&#x27;s working repertoire, copied to be read aloud; the local verse retellings that fill out the collection (<em>Along</em> this and that) are Lanna literature as much as they are Buddhist canon.</p><h2>The shape of the collection</h2><p>Jātaka is one of the largest genres in the collection — over 1,600 witnesses — and, like the canonical texts it sits beside, it is written almost entirely in <strong>Tham Lanna</strong> (94%) on <strong>palm-leaf</strong> (88%). Paper barely registers here: a jātaka is a durable sermon-text, copied into the same canonical format as the scripture it accompanies, not a working almanac to be opened flat.</p><p>On paper the collection looks like a Phrae–Lampang tradition (Phrae 27%, Lampang 22%), but that shape is deceptive and worth reading carefully — see the first note below.</p><h2>Notes</h2><ul><li><strong>The place-distribution is a library artifact, not a map of production.</strong> A single repository, <strong>Wat Sung Men</strong> in Phrae, supplies more than a fifth of the entire genre from one temple (over 350 witnesses). Phrae leads because Wat Sung Men&#x27;s library survived and was catalogued, not because Phrae &quot;wrote more jātaka.&quot; Read every province and temple count in this genre against that fact.</li><li><strong>Canon and apocrypha are collapsed under one label.</strong> The <em>nipāta</em> groupings of the canonical five hundred, the extra-canonical <em>paññāsa jātaka</em>, and the Mahāchat all arrive here as plain &quot;Jataka&quot; — including a batch recently reclaimed from a mislabelled &quot;Buddhist Tale.&quot; Splitting these apart — canonical <em>nipāta</em> vs. <em>paññāsa</em> vs. Vessantara — is the obvious next taxonomy pass, and the one most useful to a reader.</li><li><strong>Overlap with recitation.</strong> Because the Mahāchat is performed, not just read, expect jātaka to shade into the <a href=\"/a?s=genre:liturgy_chanting\">liturgy and chanting</a> corpus wherever a title names a <em>thet</em> (sermon) or a festival recitation.</li></ul>"}, "dbPresent": true, "connections": [{"rel": "depicts", "key": "entity:naga", "label": "Naga (sacred serpent)", "authored": true, "weight": null, "dir": "in"}, {"rel": "includes", "key": "entity:vessantara", "label": "Vessantara / Mahāchat", "authored": true, "weight": null, "dir": "in"}, {"rel": "related to", "key": "genre:buddhist_canonical", "label": "Buddhist Canonical · พระไตรปิฎก", "authored": true, "weight": null, "dir": "in"}, {"rel": "related to", "key": "genre:liturgy_chanting", "label": "Liturgy & Chanting · บทสวด", "authored": true, "weight": null, "dir": "out"}, {"rel": "related to", "key": "genre:poetry_literary", "label": "Poetry & Literature · วรรณกรรม", "authored": true, "weight": null, "dir": "in"}], "image": {"src": "/imgthumb/b1041e60e288c02fa8f43fc5b6443be77d0a5ab40363444dc5001a7d3f615cc4_480.jpg", "kind": "scan", "mid": 32, "sha": "b1041e60e288c02fa8f43fc5b6443be77d0a5ab40363444dc5001a7d3f615cc4", "starred": false, "caption": ""}}