The Banyan deer

[jewel]

The tragic death today of Emperor the fine Exmoor stag made me reflect on the importance of the stag/deer in a lot of literature and none more so than Buddhism.

There is a female and a male deer at the top od a Buddhist temple on either side of the golden wheel of Dharma. The emblem is called in Tibetan, ridag choekor and it also can serve to remind us that, as Marpa the Translator put it, " The Dharma is ownerless, like deer in a meadow."
The deer is also a symbol of desire, to which we owe our very existence.

This is the story of the banyan deer

There was once a stag the colour of gold. His eyes were like two jewels and his antlers were bright as silver. His mouth was like the reddest flower, and his hooves were hard and resembled diamonds. He was king of a forest herd of 500 known as Banyan Deer.
Nearby was another herd, also with a splendid king known as Branch Deer.
Now the king of that country was very fond of hunting and eating venison. He liked all the townspeople to go out hunting with him, but that meant they could not get their daily work done, so they decided to make a game reserve -- a deer park.

They built a large enclosure with plenty of grass, and water for the deer, and drove the animals into it. When they told the king about it, he was very pleased. The first thing he did after inspecting the Deer Park was to grant both splendid stags their lives. Then he surveyed the two great herds.
Some days he went himself for meat; sometimes he sent his cook. As soon as any of the deer saw them, trembling with fear they would try to run and hide, but always two or three would be struck by arrows until one fell down dead.

Then the king of the Banyan Deer sent for his counterpart and said, "The way things are going, too many deer are being killed, and many more have been wounded. Let our herds take turns, so that fewer will be harmed. Tomorrow an animal will sacrifice itself from my herd, and the next day, one from yours."

The Branch Deer king agreed, and each day one animal would go before the hunter and just lie down placing its head on a great stone. The cook would come and get that day's sacrifice and in that way fewer deer suffered each day.

One day it was the turn of a Branch doe who had just had a new fawn. She went to her king and begged that her turn be postponed until the baby was old enough to survive without her. But the ruler replied that whoever's turn it was had to die; there could be no changing of the rules.
In despair, she presented her case to the king of the other troupe. He said to her, "Do not worry about your child. I will give my life instead of you so that the fawn will have a chance to grow up.

The next day, the cook was so surprised to see the regal beast in the place of an ordinary herd animal that he went to tell the king. The king decided to go and investigate the situation for himself
The King asked the gorgeous stag, "Did I not grant you your life not long ago? Why are you lying here now?"
The royal deer explained that he was very grateful for the king's past generosity, but that he could not let the double tragedy occur. "And I could not ask any other deer to go in the doe's place, so I decided to offer up myself in her stead."
The King then said to the king of the Banyan Deer, "Rise up. I grant you your life and hers, too. In the face of such mercy and kindness, I will never again hunt deer in this park, in the forest, nor in any of the lands in my kingdom."

[HEPZIBAH]

Bump - re 'Animals'