What is the Jewel Walk and what does it look like

I have the Buddhavaṃsa (also known as the Chronicle of Buddhas), which begins with the Jewel Walk.

“On the day i visited the Chankamana was well decorated by devotes from abroad. This also known as the Jewel Walk, which is a raised platform situated to the north of the Bodhi Temple at Gaya.” [From a Travel site]

Reading, I first envisioned it as the Milky Way, but it’s apparantly an Asian sidewalk made of boards making a path through a pleasure garden. It has railings and a kind of roof.

But the fabulous depiction in the Buddhavaṃsa left me unclear. I’ve never seen a picture.

So, who knows both the book and the look?

Did you try a google image search?

The thing that the travel book is describing is a long alter that runs along one side of the MahaBodhi temple in Bodhgaya. It is a focus of devotion so it is now raised so that people can make offerings. It is said to be on the spot where the Buddha did walking meditation after his enlightenment.

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Buddhadatta’s Buddhavamsa Atthakathā does seem to conceive it as a rather gigantic construction. The description starts on page 52 of Horner’s translation.

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Thank’s for posting this. Now I can do searches. Mayve… Did you know IB Horner liked translating the Buddhavamsa commentary because she thought it had “charm”?

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Yes, my impression is that Ms Horner loved all the Pali works she translated, with the exception of the Vinaya Pitaka.

“Throughout the work the compiler has shown himself as a proficient grammarian, as accomplished in the use of words, often choosing unusual ones, as a lover of the sounds of words, as an excellent story-teller, and possibly also as an elegant and imaginative versifier. All this, together not only with the picturesque similes and metaphors but also with the ready agreement with the traditional assessment of words, contributes to the charm and instructiveness of this interesting and, in various ways, unusual commentary.”

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