Hwang Soonil
Dongguk University, (Korea)
The nāga can be regarded as a great snake, such as a king cobra, a water snake, or a mythical dragon. Within Buddhist narratives, including the life story of the Buddha, the nāga appears frequently with its overwhelming power. Poisonous and dreadful nāgas tend to be controlled and tamed by the power of the Buddha. Such a case can be seen in the story of a fire serpent in the Uruvela Kassapa episode.
In most cases, the fierce and negative nāga becomes a well-ordered and positive figure within Buddhism. Indeed, this kind of nāga can be treated as the protector not only of the Buddha’s body, in the case of Mucalinda nāga, but also of the relics of the Buddha in the case of Rāmagāma nāga.
The Buddhist way of dealing with the nāga gives some clues to understand how Buddhism peacefully localized into the new area with different religious cults. Buddhism provides order to the uncontrollable and chaotic power of local religious objects by adding Buddhist values and roles. Once well-disciplined and controllable, such local objects can remain harmoniously with Buddhism without being destroyed by Buddhism.
This presentation will explore the stories of various nāgas in the Buddhist narratives to show how the protective image of nāgas became established by controlling, or taming, the chaotic power of nāgas with peaceful Buddhist treatment.
(Presented in the International Conference on Buddhist Studies: Buddha's Biography – Buddhist Legends, 18-19 July 2015, Le Meridien Bangkok Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Department of Thai, Faculty of Arts, The Pali and Sanskrit Section, Department of Eastern Languages, Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University)