[KS] 5th 14th 23rd

[Frank Hoffmann]

UPDATE:

In Vietnam and Myanmar (likely elsewhere in Buddhist Southeast Asia) 
this "5-14-23" date combo exist, with the exact same explanation as in 
Korea. There it is traced to the very popular water buffalo king story 
from CHINA (the Shakyamuni Buddha being the actual water buffalo, in a 
former life). It's one of those stories about overcoming the ten 
fetters (of becoming enlightened), with the actual roots of the story 
going back to Hinduism. Sometimes, in Buddhist painting or sculpture, 
the water buffalo also becomes an elephant. In South Asian art you 
often see the Buddha depicted as sitting on a water buffalo. In Korea 
we do rarely see sculptures of paintings of water buffalos; that motif 
is far less popular here, and its usually just the buffalo alone that 
is being depicted. 

Maybe, with this in mind, someone can track down an actual esoteric 
Chinese version of this story, a text that would also include the 
"5-14-23" combination? (How that would play into this story, I am 
clueless.)

Best,
Frank