འཕགས་པ་མར་མ་མཛད་ཀྱས་ལང་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.3

intro.3

There follows the account of the former Buddha Dīpaṅkara. This begins with his birth, in a far distant past, as the son of a king called Endowed with Islands. This king had himself formerly been the royal priest of a king named Ajātaśatru, who held him in such high esteem that he gave him half his kingdom. The account of the young prince Dīpaṅkara’s early life loosely parallels the biography of the Buddha Śākyamuni himself in the present eon as told in accounts such as the Lalitavistara ¹—from his transmigration from Tuṣita Heaven into his mother’s womb, to his first encounter with old age, sickness, and death and his decision to abandon his inheritance, to his arrival at the seat of awakening.