Part 1.1 - Theravāda kings who have taken the vow of Bodhisattva-hood

King Bramhadatta, Sibi, Vessantara (and some others) were very popular in Jātaka stories. It is observed in later period that in various countries Theravāda kings, monks and Buddhist authors have taken the vow of Bodhisattva-hood or eventually attainment of Buddhahood. In:

Sri Lanka

i) The Mahāvaṃsa, referred Duṭṭhagāmaṇī appears to demonstrate certain Bodhisattvic qualities. He give up the world of the devas in order to return to this world of suffering for the sake of the Buddhist doctrine and out of compassion for all inhabitants on the Sri Lanka.

ii) King Sirisaṃghabodhi who had risked his life to save the people of Sri Lanka from a devastating drought. Even He offered his own head in order to divert a potential war.

iii) King Buddhadāsa, also created “happiness by every means for the people of Sri Lanka. Who was gifted with wisdom and virtue endowed with the ten qualities of kings. He had pity for all beings as a father of his own children” .

iv) King Upatissa, who fulfilled the ten Bodhisattva perfections during his reign.

v) King Niśśanka Malla (1187–1196 C.E.) of Polonnaruva, Ceylon, states that “I will show myself in my [true] body which is endowed with benevolent regard for and attachment to the virtuous qualities of a Bodhisattva king, who likes a parent, protects the world and the religion.”

vi) In other inscriptions, there is a reference to King Parākramabāhu VI as “Bodhisattva Parākrama Bāhu.” 

vii) Finally, King Mahinda IV, referred to himself as a Bodhisattva. He even went so far as to announce that “none but the Bodhisattas would become kings of prosperous Laṅkā.”

Burma

i) King Kyanzittha, who claimed himself to be “the Bodhisattva who shall verily become a Buddha that saves (and) redeems all beings, who is great in love and compassion for all beings at all times, who was foretold by the Lord Buddha, who is to become a true Buddha.”

ii) King Alaungsithu wrote that he would like to build a causeway to help all beings reach “The Blessed City of nirvāṇa.”

iii) Kings Śrī Tribhuvanāditya, Thiluiṅ Maṅ, Cañsū I, and Nātoṅmyā all referred to themselves as Bodhisattvas.

Thailand

i) King Lu T'ai of Sukhothai “wished to become a Buddha to help all beings… leave behind the sufferings of transmigration.” The relation between King Lu T'ai and Bodhisattva-hood is also manifested by the events occurring at his ordination ceremony that were similar to “the ordinary course of happenings in the career of a Bodhisattva.”

The commentator Buddhaghosa, was viewed by the monks of the Anurādhāpura monastery as being, without doubt, an incarnation of Metteyya. There are even some instances of Theravāda monks who expressed their desire to become fully enlightened Buddhas. For instance, the twentieth-century Bhikkhu, Doratiyāveye of Sri Lanka (ca. 1900), after being deemed worthy of receiving certain secret teachings by his meditation teacher, refused to practise such techniques because he felt that it would cause him to enter on the Path and attain the level of Arahat in this life time or within seven lives (by becoming a sottāpanna). This was unacceptable to Doratiyāveye because he saw himself as a Bodhisattva who had already made a vow to attain Buddhahood in the future. The another example of a Theravāda author who wished to become a Buddha by following the Bodhisattvayāna is the Sri Lanka monk Mahā-Tipiṭaka Cūlābhaya. In his twelfth-century subcommentary on the Questions of King Milinda, he “wrote in the colophon... he wished to become a Buddha—‘Buddho bhaveyyaṃ” (May I become a Buddha). The Bodhisattva Ideal in Theravāda Buddhist Theory and Practice: A Re-evaluation of the Bodhisattva-Śrāvaka Opposition. p.405-6.