This relief depicts a tale about the Buddha in one of his early lives as Megha, a young disciple of Brahmanism, when he was given a prophecy by Dipankara Buddha that he would become Buddha, an enlightened one after eons, in the next life. The original word for 燃燈 is Dipankara (light bearer), which is also translated as 定光 or 錠光 in Chinese. Although this tale is generally called the Dipankara jataka, it is not included in the original tales of the Buddha's previous lives and is rather characterized as the opening tale in the stories of the Buddha's life as Shakyamuni.