View source for Kassapa Buddha

{{Short description|Ancient Buddha}}
{{refimprove|date=August 2018}}
{{Infobox Buddha
| name             = Kassapa Buddha
| image            = Ananda Temple - Bagan, Myanmar 20130209-03.jpg
| image_size       = 200px
| caption          = South-facing Kassapa Buddha, [[Ananda Temple]], [[Myanmar]]
| sanskrit_name    = काश्यप<br>Kāśyapa
| bengali_name     =কাশ্যপ বুদ্ধ <br> Kasshyopa Buddha 
| pali_name        = कस्सप<br>Kassapa
| burmese_name     = {{my|ကဿပ}} <br>({{IPA-my|kaʔθəpa̰|}})
| chinese_name     = 迦葉佛
<br/>([[Pinyin]]: ''Jiāshè Fó'')
| japanese_name    = {{ruby-ja|迦葉仏|かしょうぶつ}}<br/>([[romaji]]: ''Kashō Bosatsu'')
| tibetan_name     = <big><big>འོད་སྲུང་</big></big><br><small>Wylie: 'od srung<br>THL: ösung</small>
| mongolian_name   = {{MongolUnicode|ᠭᠡᠷᠡᠯ ᠰᠠᠬᠢᠭᠴᠢ}} Гашив<br/>''Gashiv''
| khmer_name       = ព្រះពុទ្ធកស្សបោ<br>''Preah Puth Kassapao''
| korean_name      = 가섭불<br/>([[Revised Romanization of Korean|RR]]: ''Gaseop Bul'')
| thai_name        = พระกัสสปพุทธเจ้า<br>''Phra Kassapa Phutthachao''
| sinhala_name = කාශ්‍යප බුදුන් වහන්සේ (kashyapa budun vahansē)
| indonesian_name  = 
| vietnamese_name  = Phật Ca Diếp
| veneration       = [[Theravada]], [[Mahayana]], [[Vajrayana]]
| attributes       =
| shakti           = 
| preceded_by      = [[Kanakamuni Buddha]]
| succeeded_by     = [[Gautama Buddha]]
}}'''Kassapa Buddha''' ([[Pali|Pāli]]), is one of the ancient [[Buddhahood|Buddhas]] whose biography is chronicled in chapter 24<ref name=Vicittasarabivamsa>{{cite book|last=Vicittasarabivamsa|first=U|author-link=Mingun Sayadaw|editor-last=Ko Lay|editor-first=U|editor2-last=Tin Lwin|editor2-first=U|title=The great chronicle of Buddhas, Volume One, Part Two|edition=1st|chapter=Chapter 24: Kassapa Buddhavamsa|pages=285–92|publisher=Ti=Ni Publishing Center|location=Yangon, Myanmar|year=1992|url=http://www.myanmarnet.net/nibbana/gotama/gcobv12.htm#24}}</ref> of the ''[[Buddhavaṃsa]]'', one of the books of the [[Pali Canon]]. He was the previous Buddha of this aeon before the present [[The Buddha|Gautama Buddha]], though Kassapa lived long before him.

According to [[Theravada|Theravāda]] [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] tradition, Kassapa is the twenty-seventh of the [[List of the named Buddhas|twenty-nine named Buddhas]], the sixth of the [[List of the named Buddhas#The Seven Buddhas of Antiquity|Seven Buddhas of Antiquity]], and the third of the five Buddhas of the present [[Kalpa (aeon)|kalpa]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Tradition and modernity in Myanmar|last=Gärtner|first=Uta|author2=Jens Lorenz|year=1994|publisher=LIT Verlag|isbn=978-3-8258-2186-9|page=281}}</ref>

The present kalpa is called a ''mahabhadrakalpa'' (great auspicious aeon). The five Buddhas of the present kalpa are:<ref>{{cite book|last1=Buswell Jr.|first1=RE|last2=Lopez Jr.|first2=DS|title=The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism|edition=1st|pages=106|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey|year=2014|isbn=978-0-691-15786-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ&q=Buddhas+of+the+present+kalpa&pg=PA106}}</ref><ref name=Buddhistdoor>{{cite web|title=Chapter 36: The Buddhas in the three periods of time|work=Buddhism in a Nutshell Archives|publisher=Buddhistdoor International|location=Hong Kong|url=http://www.buddhistdoor.com/OldWeb/bdoor/archive/nutshell/teach36.htm|access-date=2014-12-21}}</ref>
#[[Kakusandha Buddha|Kakusandha]] (the first Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)
#[[Koṇāgamana Buddha|Koṇāgamana]] (the second Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)
#Kassapa (the third Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)
#[[Gautama Buddha|Gautama]] (the fourth and present Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)
#[[Maitreya]] (the fifth and future Buddha of the bhadrakalpa)

==Life==
Kassapa was born in Isipatana Deer Park. This place is located in [[Varanasi]], a city in the modern-day state of [[Uttar Pradesh]] in northern [[India]]. His parents were the Brahmadatta and Dhanavatī.

According to legend, his body was twenty [[cubit]]s high, and he lived for two thousand years in three different palaces. They are Hamsa, Yasa, and Sirinanda.<ref name=Vicittasarabivamsa/> (The BuA.217 calls the first two palaces Hamsavā and Yasavā). His chief wife was Sunandā, who bore him a son named Vijitasena.

Kassapa gave up his worldly life travelling in his palace.{{explanation needed|date=April 2017}} He practiced austerities for only seven days. Just before attaining [[Enlightenment in Buddhism|enlightenment]], he accepted a meal of [[Kiribath|milk-rice]] from his wife and grass for his seat from a yavapālaka named Soma. His [[Bodhi Tree|Bodhi tree]] (the tree under which he attained enlightenment) was a [[banyan]], and he preached his first sermon at Isipatana to an assembly of [[Bhikkhu|monks]] who had renounced the world in his company.

Kassapa performed the [[Miracles of Gautama Buddha#Twin miracle|Twin Miracle]] at the foot of an [[Pterocarpus|asana tree]] outside [[Sundar Nagar]]. He held only one assembly of his disciples; among his most famous conversions was that of Nāradeva, a [[Yaksha]]. His chief disciples among monks were Tissa and Bhāradvāja, and among [[Bhikkhuni|nuns]] were Anulā and Uruvelā, his attendant being Sabbamitta. Among his patrons, the most eminent were Sumangala and Ghattīkāra, Vijitasenā, and Bhaddā.

Kassapa died at the age of sixteen thousand years, in the city of [[Varanasi|Kashi]], in the [[Benares State|Kashi Kingdom]] (now known as Varanasi, in the modern-day Indian state of Uttar Pradesh).<ref name="Vicittasarabivamsa" /> Over his relics was raised a [[stupa]] one [[League (unit)|league]] in height, each brick of which was worth one [[crore]] (ten million) [[rupee]]s.

==The Stupa of Kassapa Buddha==
In Kashi (Varanasi) where the Buddha Kassapa passed, a stupa was built to honour his place of passing and to house his relics. Initially, there was a great difference of opinion on what should be the size of the stupa and of what material it should be built. Construction of the stupa was begun after these issues were finally settled. But then the citizens found they lacked sufficient funds to complete the stupa. An [[anāgāmi]] devotee named Sorata travelled throughout the human world of [[Jambudvipa]], requesting money from the people for the completion of the stupa. He sent the money as he received it, and on hearing that the work was completed, he set out to go and worship the stupa. He was said to be possibly seized by robbers and murdered in the forest, which later came to be known as the Andhavana.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The [[Boudha Stupa|Great Jarung Kashor Stupa]], that was built in the present day [[Boudhanath]], [[Kathmandu]], [[Nepal]], is the renowned stupa constructed by a mother, known as Little Purna and Samvari, and her four sons as a support for the [[dharmakaya]] that enshrines relics of the Buddha Kassapa.<ref name=Liberation> Padmasambhava, ''Liberation Upon Hearing: The History of the Great Jarung Kashor Stupa''. Recorded and concealed as treasure by Yeshe Tsogyal (8th century). Discovered by Lhatsün Ngönmo; Rediscovered by Ngakchang Sākya Zangpo (15th century). Translated by Samye Translations, 2017.</ref> It was completed in seven years, then consecrated by the sons who made aspirations to be reborn in Tibet in order to bring and propagate the Buddha's teachings within the northern lands. The sons were reborn as King [[Trisong Detsen]], [[Shantarakshita|Khenpo Shantarakshita]], [[Guru Padmasambhava]], and the king's minister [[Nanam Dorje Dudjom]].<ref name=Liberation/>

The [[Boudha Stupa]] was renovated in 2015 after the earthquake, and reconsecrated when the relics of the [[Shakyamuni Buddha]], together with other auspicious substances, were added to the reliquary.<ref>Tulku Rigdzin Pema, ''Inventory of Jarung Khashor Stūpa'', 2017.</ref>

At the Varanasi stupa, the Upavāna, in a previous birth, became the guardian deity of the stupa, hence his great majesty in his last life (DA.ii.580; for another source on the building of the shrine see DhA.iii.29).

Among the thirty-seven goddesses noticed by Guttila when he visited heaven was one who had offered a scented five-spray at the stupa (J.ii.256). Alāta offered āneja-flowers and obtained a happy rebirth (J.vi.227).

The cause of [[Mahākāśyapa]]'s golden complexion was his gift of a golden brick to the building of Kassapa's stupa (AA.i.116).

At the same stupa, Anuruddha, who was then a householder in Varanasi, offered butter and molasses in brass bowls, which were placed without any interval around the stupa (AA.i.105).

==See also==
*[[Bhadrakalpikasutra]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.palikanon.com/english/pali_names/ka/kassapa.htm Kassapa, der Pali Kanon des Theravāda-Buddhismus]

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{{28 Buddhas}}
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[[Category:Seven Buddhas of the Past]]