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Jatakas Coloring Books

1991 A Precious Life/The Magic of Patience. Illustrated by Rosalyn White. Paperbound. Oakland: A Jataka Tale Coloring Book: Dharma Publishing. $6 from the publisher, Dec., '04. 

This booklet is derived from two booklets with these same titles. In "A Precious Life," The Great Being, who is a deer, shows mercy to the prince who had tried to hunt and kill him. In fact, the deer revives him after a terrible accident at a ravine during the pursuit. The deer carries him out of the ravine. Offered whatever he wants, the deer asks the hunter to renounce hunting animals. The hunter henceforth realizes that any animal he encounters might be a Great Being. In "The Magic of Patience," the Great Being, who is a buffalo, lives within a jungle with a mischievous monkey. The monkey plays constant tricks on the buffalo, but the buffalo remains patient with his pranks and foolishness. A forest sprite asks the buffalo why he puts up with this creature whom he could easily crush. The buffalo answers that the monkey is doing him a favor by teaching him patience. The sprite asks how he can learn patience, and the buffalo answers that you need a real rascal. Gentle and kind creatures will not help. The sprite goes off, and it turns out that the monkey has overheard the conversation. He asks the buffalo for forgiveness. The art work presented in the colored booklets of the same titles earlier is here converted into outlines for coloring in. A CDRom came with the booklet.

1991 The Value of Friends/The Best of Friends. Illustrated by Eric Meller and Rolsalyn White, respectively. Paperbound. Oakland: A Jataka Tale Coloring Book: Dharma Publishing. $6 from the publisher, Dec., '04. Extra copy at the same time from the same source. 

This booklet is derived from two booklets with these same titles, published in 1990 and 1989, respectively. The LC blurb for The Value of Friends is accurate: the hawk and his family are made aware of the value of friendship when their friends the osprey, the lion, and the tortoise save them from hungry country folk. In The Best of Friends, a Great Being, in the form of a woodpecker, frees a lion from a bone caught in his throat. They encounter each other later when the woodpecker is hungry and the lion has just made a kill. The lion dismisses the woodpecker. The latter will not, however, get revenge, as he tells a sky fairy. He explains that "He helped the lion in order to end his pain, not to gain a reward." The woodpecker adds that he counts as friends everyone he meets. The art work presented in the colored booklets of the same titles earlier is here converted into outlines for coloring in. A CDRom came with one of the two booklets.

2004 The Rabbit Who Overcame Fear/The Hunter and the Quail. Illustrations adapted by Chelsea Heikes from the originals created by Eric Meller and Rachel Garbett. Paperbound. Oakland: A Jataka Tale Coloring Book: Dharma Publishing. $6 from the publisher, Dec., '04. 

This coloring booklet is derived from two earlier booklets with these same titles. This is the standard tale of the timid rabbit who hears the thud of a ripe mango dropping near him and thinks it is the end of the world. The accent here is on the altruism of the lion who stops the animals from running off a cliff into the sea. "The Sage" is a wise quail who lives happily with his family in a deep forest. A clever bird-hunter lures the quails with clever calls and throws nets over them. The Sage suggests to his family that, when trapped by the hunter's net, they should poke their heads through an opening and then beat their "wings in a flurry and take to the air." They do what is suggested and it succeeds. They come down over a thorn bush and can wriggle out underneath the net and bush. After some recurrences, the hunter's wife chides him upon his empty-handed return home. The hunter answers that soon enough the spirit of cooperation will dwindle among the quail, and he will be bringing home prey again. He turns out to be right. The Sage takes his family away to safety, but those remaining bicker and are taken. "So it was in ancient times that quarreling birds were captured by the hunters, but those who learned to work together could escape the cleverest foe." Art work presented in the colored booklets of the same titles earlier is here adapted into outlines for coloring in. A CDRom came with the booklet and changes the gender of the frightened rabbit to female.

 

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