Mogao Cave Movies
As the Buddha-to-be is riding through the forest with his two brothers, they find a starving tigress and her cubs. Buddha takes pity on them, and decides to feed them with his own flesh. As his brothers ride away, the Buddha hangs his clothes on a tree. He sits among the beasts, which seem playful rather than hungry. © The J. Paul Getty Trust. Photograph by Lois Conner, 1995.