In the renowned Jataka of Buddhist tradition – a collection of stories on the past lives of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha – the central roles are played by animals. Before Siddhartha became the Enlightened One, he was born in many animal shapes, and various animals engage in dialogue with Buddha in the collection, embodying human virtues and weaknesses as well as conveying a moral and the deep philosophical truth of Buddhism through dynamic adventures. Since the very beginnings of Buddhism a few hundred years BCE, telling stories of Jataka has been a popular mode of communicating complex Buddhist teachings to the community at large; in modern times, this has been joined by other verbal and visual media, among which comic strips are particularly popular.
This event approximated passing on Buddhist lore in such a way; at its core was an exhibition of illustrations from a comic book that was made by Ciril Horjak and based on selected Jataka animal adventures and of illustrations depicting animals that appear the most frequently in the animal stories, authored by Ljiljana Marković. Alongside the exhibition, animal stories were told, the multifaceted symbolic meanings of individual animals in Buddhism were explained, and the Buddhist truths they convey were clarified; in addition, Ciril Horjak, a comic book artist, presented comic strips as a unique medium for dynamic storytelling through words and images.
Project coordinator: Nina Petek, PhD, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts
Making and presentation of the comic book: Ciril Horjak, BFA in painting, illustrator, caricaturist and comic book artist
Illustrations of selected animals of Jataka: Ljiljana Marković, Faculty of Design
Telling the stories of Jataka: Katja Preša, performance artist, storyteller and presenter
Presentation of animal symbolism in Buddhism: Tara Peternell, Matej Kapus and Anemarija Planšak, students at the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
