Nanda Presented a Lantern
North Wall, Cave 98, Five Dynasties, 907-960
On the fourteenth and fifteenth of the first month of the lunar year, Buddhists held a large lantern festival to worship Buddha and his followers. Thousands of colorful lanterns were lit up in front of temples. Under the initiation of Pasenadi, the devotees of Buddha came to hang lanterns one after another to show their sincerity. All the people, old or young, gathered and vowed with each other to appreciate the lantern show and worshiped their Buddha. Among the people coming to the show, there was a girl named Nanda. Due to the fact that her parents died when she was only a little girl, poverty forced her to beg and to live a vagrant life.
She would become very upset when she saw girls coming around with new clothes while she only had ragged ones for herself. There happened to be an old Buddhist nun passing by and the girl stopped her and asked respectfully, “Elder, what has made me so poor since I was born?” The nun responded, “That’s a simple question, because you don’t believe in Buddha and have never worshiped him. Happiness will only fall on you if you go readily to light a lantern and worship Sakyamuni in the temple yourself. When you really become a believer of Buddha, you will be free of poverty.” She was so poor that she could not afford to buy a lantern. Therefore, she went begging from one door to another and finally she begged some money, and she bought a lantern. Then she wanted to buy oil for the lantern, but she found that there was little money left. The owner of the oil asked her; “Why did you buy such a little amount of oil? How can you buy oil with such little money?” Nanda begged, “This is the only property I have. I am buying oil to worship my Buddha. Please, please give me some oil in charity.”
On hearing this, the owner filled up the oil for her and she quickly lighted the lantern and began to worship Buddha. After showing her gratitude, Nanda was happily heading towards the temple. But she was stopped by the little novice Buddhist who was guarding the gate. At that precise moment, Buddha had just finished his Buddhism delivery. He said to an aide named Ananda, “An important person is coming here to worship me but was stopped by the novice. Come bring her here.” Ananda took the order. Actually King Pasenadi was also listening to Buddhism there, assuming that he was the most honorable person in the whole country. “Who is the person superior to me?” Pasenadi really felt resentful when he saw the girl Nanda led by Ananda. He thought that this important person was only a poor girl. On seeing Buddha, Nanda worshiped on bended knees and wished, “The brightness of the lantern is shining on us, which will bring happiness to all who see it.” Having finished, she hung the lantern on the road.
There was a big storm during the night. The next morning when Moggallana went to check the lanterns, he was so surprised that all the lights in the lanterns had been blown out by the strong wind last night, but only the light in the girl Nanda’s lantern was still on. He began adopting his strong magical power and bringing the heavy rains and a fierce tornado, aiming to blow out the light, but it was still on. Finally, Moggallana turned to Buddha for an explanation. Buddha said to him, “The poor girl used the money she begged to buy the lantern and oil in order to worship me and the good deed of which greatly shows her sincerity to Buddha. Owing to that fact, no matter how powerful you are, her light cannot be blown out.” When the sun was rising, girl Nanda came to see her lantern. It was much brighter than before. She had prayed the whole night for the light to shine forever and her wish came true. Nanda happily went to the temple, bowing and kneeling in worship. Buddha knew her wish and released colorful lucky lights and turned Nanda to a Buddhist nun. After years of studious practice of Buddhism, she finally became an arhat.
Translated by Song Yunjie
