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The political unit known as modern Nepal
has existed since the latter part of the 18th century when the first King of the
present dynasty, Prithivinarayan Shah, starting from the small kingdom of Gorkha
in central Nepal, began the process of uniting the numerous petty kingdoms in
the hills into one nation. Over the centuries the hill areas has provided a
haven for people from north and south, so that the present facial make-up of the
country is a mixture of various Asian elements, and Nepal has been called the
"ethnic turntable of Asia". Prithivainarayan Shah himself likened his kingdom to
a flower garden n which flourished the four traditional castes and thirty-six
tribes (or subcastes).
Nepal, however, has existed
as a country since at least the beginning of the Christian era, and for most of
that period consisted of the Valley of Nepal (or the Kathmandu Valley) plus some
of the surrounding hill territory as far east as Dolakha, as for west as Gorkha,
north to the Tibetan border and south almost to the plains of India, the amount
of territory depending on the fortunes of the various dynasties. The original
inhabitants of the Valley are Newars, who still comprise about half it as
population. Here also there has been a meeting of races and cultures. The Newars
have been active traders with the plains and with Tibet from the beginning of
their history right down to the present, and the Valley has provided a new home
for refugees from India from the time of the Indian Mutiny in 1857. There is a
difference though. Throughout the hills, refugees and new settlers tended to
settle on isolated hillsides and in the shelter of inaccessible valleys where,
until the push for development and modernization in Nepal which began after 1951
and brought improved communications and new opportunities, they remained as
closed units, cut off from their neighbors of a different race and culture on
the nearby ridges and in the valleys beyond. In the valley, the newcomers from
the north and south were integrated into Newar society, becoming Newar in the
process and making, in turn, a contribution to the cultural fabric of Newar
society. As a result the term 'Newar' is not a racial term, a but a cultural
term, denoting the very rich and complex culture of the society of the Valley.
It denotes people who speak a common language, Newari, and who share a common
but diverse culture.
Since the beginning of
recorded history in the middle of the sixth century AD the Valley of Nepal has
been ruled by Hindu Kings. The first historical kings were the Licchavis (c.
400-900 AD), presumably refugees from Vaisali (near Muzaffarpur in modern north
Bihar) who had left their homeland several centuries before rather than submit
to the Mauryan dynasty
[1]. They were
Hindus and ruled 'by the favor of Pasupatinath'. They were followed by a line,
or several lines, of kings conveniently grouped together under the name 'Thakuri'
who ruled from c.900 until 1200 AD. This is a period of little information the 'Thakuri'
kings left few inscriptions, and what knowledge we have about this period is
limited to ocassional notes on manuscripts, mostly Buddhist, which end with
"copied in the year such-and-such during the reign of king so-and-so". Yet it is
clear from what little we know that the seed kings were also Hindus. They were
followed by the Mallas, not a single dynasty, but at least three separate
dynasties all claiming Rajput descent and all Hindus who ruled from 1200 AD
until the fall of Bhaktapur to Prithivinarayan Shah in 1769. Yet extant
historical records show that, from the time of the Licchavis down to the
present, Hinduism and Buddhism have existed side by side in the Valley,
presenting a picture that is a reflection of the relationship between the two in
India throughout the period when Buddhism flourished there. Buddhism appears not
as a movement separate from or opposed to the stream of culture of subcontinent,
but rather as an integral part of the religious culture that grew and flourished
in its soil.
The Buddhism of the Valley
of Nepal is tantric and therefore Mahayana and Vajrayana. It is often said to be
unique and it is in many ways. However, it is not unique because it is tantric.
It is basically the same king of Buddhism that one finds in the Tibetan culture,
whether within Tibetan or among those of other countries who share the same
culture, such as the Sherpas and other northern border people of Nepal. The
rituals performed by the tantric Buddhist priests of Nepal are the same as the
rituals performed by the lamas and basically the same as the rituals performed
by the lamas and basically the same as the ritual performed by the priests of
the Shingon sect of Japan The tantric texts on which their teachings and rituals
are based are the same. It is not unique because of the plethora of multi-armed
and multi-headed tantric deities (Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, protective divinities).
These are found wherever one finds tantric Buddhism. All of these rituals and
deities plus the tantras on which they are based can be reached to the great
centres of late Indian Buddhism such as Malanda, Vikramasila, Odanntapuri, and
Jagaddalla.
It is not unique because it
is 'mixed up with Hinduism' as has some often been said. At the level of
Buddhist Dharma, at the level of understanding the meaning of rituals and the
meaning of the multifarious deities, the Newar Buddhists are not 'mixed-up' at
all. They have very clear idea. The only ones confused are the outside observers
who are used to seeing earlier and simpler forms of Buddhism which flourish
today in a non-Hindu society. David Snellgrove remarked several years ago.
We forget that...
Buddhism, being one of several religions which grew and developed on Indian
soil, was affected like all the others by the rich and extravagant tendencies
which characterized medieval Indian civilization . . . Indian styles of
architecture with their stylized and symbolic arrangements, were then as much
Buddhist as Hindu, for they were all part of the same cultural heritage.
Likewise temple liturgies and techniques of yoga belonged to an Indian patrimony
developed and enriched over the centuries by generations of worshippers and
religious practices, and the craftsmen who produced the images, religious
paintings and temple decoration and ritual implements, worded in the same
artistic mediums and styles. Saivite tantrism and Buddhist tantrism presumably
developed as the different aspects, conditioned by their sectarian differences,
of a common India development in philosophical thinking, in approach to the
gods, in building styles and all the rest. It is thus a misleading
interpretation of event, if one assumes that Buddhism was now suddenly pervaded
and corrupted by Hinduism. Throughout the one thousand seven hundred years of
its long history in India, Buddhism could find no expression which was not part
of the Indian scene.[2]
The uniqueness of Newar
Buddhism, however, is related to the fact that it is embedded in a dominant
Hindu society confined with in a very small geographical area. Buddhism in India
flourished in a Hindu society, but within a vast area where it was possible for
the monks to truly withdraw from Hindu society to establish their monasteries in
relatively remote places where they were less affected by the customs and
strictures of Hindu society. In the Valley of Nepal, Buddhism flourished within
the confines of the three small walled cities of Patan, Kathmadu and Bhaktapur,
where it was very much a part of its (Hindu) surroundings.
In order to understand
Newar Buddhism I think it is important to approach it with an open mind and
attempt to understand it on its own terms, that is, within the context of its
own ideology and institutions, and without prior judgments about what
constitutes Buddhism. This is important, because so many western writers on
Newar Buddhism begin their treatment by saying that it is an unorthodox,
aberrant or corrupt form of Buddhism mixed up with Hinduism. This creates
prejudice in the mind of the reader which precludes any real understanding of
Newar Buddhism, because the frame of reference is orthodox (usually Hinayana)
Buddhism as it is practiced today in non-Hindu countries, or as we find it
delineated in the classical Buddhist texts which propose the ideals and say
little about the way Buddhism was actually lived among the Buddhist population
at large.
The Newar Buddhists, like
Buddhists everywhere, take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The
Buddha is, of course, the historical Sakyamuni Buddha, but in Mahayana and
tantric Buddhism the five transcendent Buddhas (Vairocana, Aksobhya, Amitabha,
Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi) are more known and have a more important place
in the ritual that the historical Buddha. In a tantric context these five are
presided over by the Adi-Buddha or Vajrasattva, the personification of Sunyata.
Much of the devotional life of the people centres round the worship of the
Bodhisattvas, especially Avalokitesvara and Manjusri; and the tantric rituals
are centred on the mandalas of such deities as Cakrasamvara-Vajravarahi and
Hevajra-Nairatmya. The Dharma is, of course, the Four Noble Truths and the
Eight-Fold Path, but understood in a Mahayana context and practiced according to
the tantras. These are eight Mahayana sutras and one tantric text which the
Newar Buddhists to this day consider to be their canon: Prajnaparamita,
Gandavyuha, Dasabhumisvara, Samadhiraja, Lankavatara, Saddharma-pundarika
Lalitavistara, Suvarnaprabhasa, and the Tathagataguhya (or Guhyasamaja tantra).
These texts are recognized as the official texts. Some of them (especially the
Prajnaparamita) are recited at various times, and the books are worshipped.
Today, however, there are few, even among the priestly class, who understand
Sanskrit and can study these texts.
All of this is standard
Mahayana and tantric Buddhism; what is unique is the lifestyle of the sangha and
the viharas in which they live.
The term vihara, of course,
refers to he Buddhist monastery, the place where the bhiksu-sangha live. In
Newari there are two terms for these buildings: baha and bahi. Baha is derived
from the Sanskrit Vihara (Vihara vahara/bahara/bahala > bahal > baha).[3]
The term bahi seems to have been derived from the Sanskrit bahir, and these
institutions were so-called because they were outside or at the edge of the old
cities.
The traditional style of
the vihara seems to have been handed down from the earliest days of Buddhism,
and this can be traced if one looks at the well-preserved cave monasteries of
Ajanta and Ellora built in western India some two thousand years ago. There one
sees the same pattern that can still be found off the streets and alleys of the
cities of the Valley: a series of room built round an open courtyard with a
especial room opposite the entry way, which serves as the shrine of the
monastery. Viharas in Nepal were built of brick and wood and because of both the
climate and frequent earth quakes there are no existing vihara buildings which
pre-date the sixteenth century. Many institutions are much older than this; and
some of the ornamentations- carved windows, roof struts, toranas- were preserved
from earlier buildings and may be as old as the twelfth century. However, even
the oldest foundations have been continually rebuilt, often much more recently
than one would suspect by looking at the building.
The traditional style of
the baha has been best preserved in a baha of Kathmandu known as Chusya baha.
'The present buildings were built in 1649 AD, though the struts supporting the
roof may be a hundred years older. Chusya baha is a two-storied building of
brick and wood built round an open and paved courtyard. The courtyard is sunken
and the ground floor plinth is a foot or more above this pavement. Opposite the
entrance is the shrine of the baha, which contains an image of the Buddha
sitting in Vajrasana and showing the earth-touching gesture. The carved doorway
of the shrine has a wooden door of lattice work enabling one to see into the
shrine even when the door is closed. Three sides of the ground floor are open
halls. One of these is the entrance hall which has two benches and images of
Mahakala and Ganesa set into the wall. These two images are placed at the
doorway of each baha and bahi as protective deities.[4]
To these is usually added a their protective deity, Hanuman, who is often
represented simply by a triangular chink in the wall rather than by an image. In
each corner of the quadrangle are two small dark rooms, one with a stairway
leading to the upper story. Each of these four stairways leads to an apartment
of three rooms on the first floor. Each of these four apartments is separate
with no interconnecting doors or passage ways. Above the shrine of the Buddha is
a five-fold window, behind which is a large room (digi) where the elders of the
sangha meet, and off which is a doorway leading to the shrine (agam) of the
sacred tantric deities of the sangha. A bay window over the entrance projects
over the courtyard, and the outside of the upper story is pierced by several
windows. The outer wall of the ground floor has two other doorways, but no
windows. All of the windows of the first floor are elaborately carved, and the
tile roof is supported by a series of exquisitely carved struts portraying
various deities, each of which is named.[5]
Above the roof is a bell-shaped finial (actually an inverted Kalasa) known as a
gajura. Over the street entrance and also over the door of the shrine is a
torana or tympanum. The one over the street entrance portrays Prajnaparamita (a
personification of the Mahayana text) and the one over the doorway to the shrine
portrays Mahaksobhya, a tantric form of the transcendent Buddha Aksobhya. In the
courtyard of the monastery are two caityas, and image of Tara and a stone image
of Vajrasattva flanked by figures of the two donors of the image.
The structure of a bahi is
similar but has its own distinctive features. It is also a brick and wooden
structure, a usually of two stories, built round a courtyard. In general it is a
simpler structure with less ornamentations than the baha. There is usually only
one opening in the entire ground floor, the main entrance, and usually one
mounts a flight of steps up to the entrance. In most bahas the entrance is at
ground level. Inside the entrance are the images of Ganesa, Mahakala and
Hanuman. The entire ground floor, except for the shrine, is usually one
continuous open hall, in one corner, usually to the left as one enters, is a
single staircase leading to the upper story. The shrine is a small, windowless
room situated directly opposite the main entrance and offset for the rest of the
building so that it is possible for devotees to circumambulate it. The upper
storey usually has a projecting balcony which enlarges the space, but like the
lower floor it is usually undivided and a continuous open hall except for a
single blind room directly above the shrine, This room houses the secret tantric
deity of the bahi, The first storey of the building usually has three or five
windows on the outside, except for the side of the building which houses the
shrine, which has fewer. The balcony running round the upper storey is
frequently enclosed with lattice screens. The upper storey often has another
balcony extending out over the entrance to the street. The roof is wide and
overhanging, and the space under the roof is usually unused. Above the shrine is
a small temple-like structure: a sort of hanging lantern or cupola.
This seems to have been the
traditional architecture of a baha and bahi. However, few today conform to this
prototype. The bahis, if the buildings have survived at all, have more
consistently maintained the traditional architecture. Many bahas today consist
of a courtyard with residential buildings, most of which have been constructed
at different times and often in different styles, with a baha shrine opposite
the entrance. The shrine has preserved certain distinctive features: a carved
doorway with lattice work surmounted by a torana and flanked by two small, blind
windows. Usually the entrance to the shrine is made by two stone lions. The
first storey of the shrine usually has a five-fold carved window and contains
the digi and the agam. If there are more than these two stories to the shrine
the upper stories, which often have living quarters, may have over-hanging
balconies, carved windows or even modern glass windows, the roof, which may be
of tile or corrugated iron sheeting, is commonly surmounted by one or more
finials, often in the form of a caitya.
Especially in Patan, there
are places where the shrine is much more elaborate, becoming in fact a modified,
multi-roofed temple set into the complex of buildings round the courtyard. The
façade of the shrine is often decorated with a profusion of Mahayana and tantric
deities, some of stone or cast metal, others done in repousse brass or gilded
copper. The façade of a number of these shrines had been covered with a gaudy,
ceramic tiles. At Bhinche Baha in Patan the shrine is actually a free-standing
temple of three roofs.
There are a few example of
another type which might be called an extended baha complex: a very large
courtyard (almost as large as a football field and sometimes resembling a park)
surrounded by residential buildings with a baha shrine located along one side.
The courtyard is usually filled with images and caityas. Perhaps the best
example of this is Bu Baha in Patan.
Another type of baha is
what I have called the modern baha. This consists of a courtyard surrounded by
residential buildings with a small Buddha shrine somewhere in the courtyard but
not a separate section of the Buildings, sometimes the shrine is entirely
free-Standing, either set to one side or in the center of the courtyard.
Sometimes it is a small plastered shrine set against one wall of the courtyard
building. I call these 'modern' because all the examples encountered were
founded or built within the past one hundred to one hundred and fifty years, and
seem to reflect the deteriorating economic status of the baha communities. There
are no complete baha complexes, such as Chusya Bahas, which have been
constructed within the past hundred and fifty years. Even renovations of old
shrines after earth quakes or the ravages of time tend to be simplified
structure or 'modern' bahas.
Whatever the present style,
there are three essential elements to a vihara: the shrine of the Buddha, a
caitya and a tantric shrine.
The image of the Buddha,
known as the Kwapa-dya in Newari, is the centre of the non-tantric worship of
the community of the vihara and his shrine is the one shrine which is open to
the public. The current term kwapa-dya is a contraction of Kwalkoca-pala-deva
which is found in earlier inscriptions. This in turn appears to be a Newari
variant of the Sanskrit term kosthapala which is found in one fourteenth century
inscription and is used as a synonym for the Buddha.[6]
Kosthapala means a guard, watchman or storekeeper and hence the current
tradition that the term means the 'guardian of the sanghah'. In Patan one also
finds the term Kwapa aju, the 'guardian grandfather'.
In most viharas the
kwapa-dya is an image of the Buddha sitting in vajrasana and showing the earth
touching gesture. This is also the iconographic form of the transcendent Buddha
Aksobhya. Some claim that the image is always the historical Sakyamubi Buddha
and not the transcendent Buddha Aksobhya; but in some case we have inscriptions,
put up at the time of the consecration of the image, which clearly state that
the image is Aksobhya (especially in Kathmandu). Over fifty percent of the
Kwapa-dya images are of this form of the Buddha. The next most popular image is
a standing Buddha figure showing the boon-granting gesture with the right hand
and with the left hand raised to the shoulder level and gathering up the ends of
the robe in an elegant sweep. This is a popular form of the Buddha in Nepal:
very ancient and certainly pre tantric. Nepali scholars identify this gesture as
the visvavyakrana-mudra, and popular devotion identifies the image as Maitreya.[7]
There is no justification for this hand posture (mudra) or for the
identification of the image as Maitreya in standard iconographic texts, but it
is certainly common in the oral tradition of the Valley.[8]
Some of the images are one of the other transcendent Buddhas,
Padmapani-Lokesvara or Maitreya. All of the Kwapa-dya images are non-tantric
deities except for one image in Bhaktapur of Mahavairocana. The images face
north, east or west. The favoured direction is north, with over half of the
shrines oriented to that direction; east and west are about equally divided. The
shrine never faces south as this is considered inauspicious - south is the
direction of Yamaraja, the lord of death and the underworld.
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