The sutra comprises stories of Buddha's life in his previous incarnations or jātaka which, legend says, were told to Chinese monks in Khotan. This copy dates from about AD 500. There is no extant Khotanese or Sanskrit original for this sutra but the story reflects the story of the transmission of Buddhism from India to centres such as Khotan where it became established and thence moved on east to China, Korea and Japan. This sutra was later translated into Tibetan and then into Mongolian as A Sea of Narratives (Uliger-un dalai).
Ink on paper
The British Library
Or.8210/S.3693