Journal article

Publication year: 2002

Pages: 115-134

Journal: The world of music

Volume number: 44

Issue number: 2

ISSN: 0043-8774

Publisher: Göttingen University Press

Abstract: 
This article aims to unify constructivistic-systemic philosophy with Buddhist conceptions of embodiment. Music is analyzed as part of the constructive potential, through which both individual psychic systems and collective, cultural ones are created and maintained. The embodiment of a single psychic system in a sequence of incarnations is constructed in the Jataka tales in two specific ways: a) in the main actors of the stories, who are different persons but in the end one and the same, and b) in the personification of special qualities--like generosity, selflessness or honesty etc.--one of which the main actor of each story embodies, as specified by the narrative. As the continuity of a cultural system is always an act of memory and depends on the memory-related activities of the participants, the article shows how multimedial performances of Jataka tales preserve, in part, the multmedial network of Theravada Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka today. Music is seen as an important part of this network, and one sensory component in the physical process of transferring the embodied content of the ancient story to the contemporary audience. Description and analysis engage three very different kinds of Jataka performances that exemplify the rich tradition and show continuity despite musical change: a) the archaic story-teller, who accompanies himself with his rabana, declaiming the Serivavanije Jataka at a Vesak pandal; b) the verses of the Vessantara Jataka, which are sung or performed as a scenic play at funerals or other sad occasions; and c) a recent pop/rap version of the Sirisanghabo Jataka, reinterpreted by the male Pop-duo Bathiya Santush.

Harvard Citation style: Claus-Bachmann, M. (2002) Jataka narrations as multimedial reconstructive embodiments of the mental system Buddha Shakyamuni, WORLD OF MUSIC, 44(2), pp. 115-134

APA Citation style: Claus-Bachmann, M. (2002). Jataka narrations as multimedial reconstructive embodiments of the mental system Buddha Shakyamuni. WORLD OF MUSIC. 44(2), 115-134.