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Buddha's Twelve Animals browse these categories for related items... All Items: Artisan and Design: Jewelry: Necklaces: Contemporary: item # 724576 Please refer to our stock # J0068 when inquiring.
Classical Creations By Appointment Santa Barbara, California 805-562-8619 Guest Book $160.00 |
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24" necklace of yak bone, brass spacers, with carved wooden beads the feature the twelve animals of the Buddhist zodiac. Focal pendant is a large brown serpentine carving. Clasp is a vermeil toggle. A legend is told that once upon a time on a New Year’s Day when Lord Buddha was sick and near death, the Jade Emperor invited all the animals in the world to visit Buddha so that he could say goodbye to them and give them gifts. Only twelve came: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. As a reward, Buddha gave each of the twelve animals a year to call their own, in the order in which they arrived, and these became the years of the zodiac. The clever rat obtained the honor of being first through trickery. The rat used to be close friends with the cat. They shared their food and went everywhere together. When they heard that Buddha had called all the animals to come to him, they decided that they would go together. But while the cat napped, the rat decided to go without him. The rat did not know how he would beat the animals ahead of him. But being small, he rode all the way on the head of the powerful ox. Upon reaching Buddha's bedside, he leaped to the ground, and became the first to appear before Buddha. The ox became the second. The cat, deeply sleeping, never made it to the Buddha’s bedside at all and so Buddha never named a year for him. The cat never forgave the rat for not waking him, and that is why cats still chase rats to this day and will kill them if they catch them. Every year in this twelve-year cycle now had a symbolic animal, whose characteristics were said to influence the world events, personality and fate of everything and everyone born in that year. |
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