The Great Departure

In my previous journal entry The Early Life of the Buddha we saw how prince Siddhartha, the future Buddha, realised that everything around him was transient and that the pleasures of the senses were creating the illusion of ‘the world’, having understood that old age, illness and death must affect everyone and render everything impermanent.

Today, we went to the wonderful Ta Prohm Temple to look at a relief depicting the Buddha-to-be’s decision to leave behind his privileged life and secretly flee the palace for good.  It is interesting that this Buddhist scene survived The Hindu Reaction, perhaps the iconoclasts were not very familiar with the Buddhist myths they tried so fervently to erase!

During the last night in his royal home the gods plunged all the inhabitants into a deep sleep.  After giving his wife and son a final glance, and observing the sleeping court ladies and dancers as he left his royal palace, Siddhartha went to the stables, awakened his squire, Chandaka, and ordered him to bring his horse Kanthaka without delay.

The gods (or the lokapala, celestial beings) opened the city gates and, to ensure a silent departure, they supported the horse’s hooves with their hands while Chandaka held its tail.

Figure 1.  The Great Departure, Ta Prohm Temple, Angkor, Cambodia.
In the pediment in the southern section of Ta Prohm Temple (tower 62), the young prince is shown leaving the palace with his courtiers carrying large parasols, banners and fans.  Four lokapalas or attendants (only two visible) support the horse’s hooves.

Having decided to enter the path of religious mendicants, to live the life of an itinerant monk, Siddhartha rode until they reached a hermitage, where he took off his jewels and gave them to Chandaka.  He dismissed his squire with a message for his father that he had left, not from lack of affection for him, but because he needed freedom to win salvation.  His groom tried to dissuade the prince from his decision, but was reminded that they would in any case be parted by death.

We continue this story with a visit to Preah Khan Temple in The Cutting of the Hair.

You can enjoy more of my images from Ta Prohm Temple by clicking here:  My Work at Ta Prohm Temple.

If you enjoyed this article, and you would like to continue to share in my adventures, please sign up for my newsletter below.  Since I no longer post on social media, this is the best way to stay up-to-date with my work.