Organizer and Chair: John C. Huntington, Ohio State University
Over the past five years, I and a team of scholars from the Ohio State University have engaged in a series of multidisciplinary projects (Techniques from Art History, Buddhology, Cultural Anthropology, Folklore, History, and Philology were involved) in an effort to fully understand the Buddhist religion of the Newars. We have visited almost every Buddhist site in the valley, discussed Buddhist practice with most of the leading practitioners, observed rituals and documented our efforts with 30,000 field photographs, more than 1,000 pages of notes, 80 hours of video tape, and dozens of audio tapes.
What we have discovered is a vital and energetic community of practitioners who adhere to a set of practices revolving around the narrative of the Swayambhupurana. In a classic example of enacting Eliade’s myth of the eternal return, the priests of the community lead the sangha and the laity through a set series of rituals of annual renewal. And yet in the secret agams of their bahals, they perform tantric rituals for their own Buddhological attainment and advancement. While there is significant variance between rituals as practiced by the Vajracharyas communities of Kathmandu and Patan, the underlying themes are fundamentally similar. The papers that are included in this panel are aimed at key issues and unique features of Newar Buddhism. They are the results of research that will eventually lead to several major publications on Newar Buddhism.
The Yoginis of Newar Buddhism: An Ontological Interpretation
Dina Bangdel, Western Michigan University
To the Newar Buddhist, the Kathmandu Valley is conceived of as the Cakrasamvara Mandala, with the shrines of the goddesses (yogini) defining this conceptual ideal within the Valley’s sacred geography. The placement of the twenty-four Astamatrika (Mother Goddesses) pithas and the four Yogini shrines conceptually mirrors the structure of the Cakrasamvara Mandala, thereby reifying the sacrality of the Valley. In other words, with Vajravarahi as the emanator of the yogini tantra Mandala of Cakrasamvara, it is the goddesses or yoginis that define spatial ordering of the Valley in the Newar Buddhist context.
What does it mean for the Newar Buddhist practitioner that the Valley is generated by Cakrasamvara/Vajravarahi? I will discuss the significance of yoginis in the idealized construct of the religion. I will also examine here the role of the Eight Mother Goddesses in context of the Cakrasamvara practices of Newar Buddhism. A major focus here is to explore the yoginis as the ontological source for the Cakrasamvara cycle in Newar Buddhism. I will present a buddhological interpretation of the Valley’s conceptual mapping, specifically examining the relationship of important yoginis of Newar Buddhism: Guhyesvari, Vajravarahi/Vajradevi, and the Astamatrkas. The analysis of the yoginis in relation to the conceptual construct of the Valley as the Cakrasamvara Mandala will highlight their significance in the Tantric practices of Newar Buddhism.
Conceptual Relationships between Kumari Baha, Mandalic Representations, and the Kathmandu Valley
Janice Glowski, Ohio State University
The conceptual relationship between architectural design and mandalic representation plays an integral role in the socio-religious sphere of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. This relationship has been touched on by scholars such as Van Kooij, Kolver, and Gellner, though much remains to be done on both general and specific levels.
This paper examines the iconography and architectural design of Kumari Baha (Kumari Chen), a religious center located in Kathmandu’s main square next to the old Malla Palace, and considers them within the context of other socio-religious centers and religious presuppositions found in the Valley. Through comparative techniques, this paper establishes relationships between the structure and iconography of Kumari Baha and the larger conceptual and mandalic notions of the Valley.
New Episodes in the Narrative of the Life of Sakyamuni Buddha: Findings in a Book of Drawings from the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Chaya Chandrasekhar, Ohio State University
The life of Sakyamuni Buddha is one of the most studied and recounted narratives in Buddhist literature and traditional art historical studies. Apart from the established canon, scholars have also recorded and interpreted less frequently occurring episodes that have made their way into the collection over time. A book of drawings, recording various important deities and festivals of Nepal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, provides yet another variation in the life of the Buddha narrative. While recounting some of the regular events such as the birth, the great departure, the moment of enlightenment, and so on, this narrative focuses on the Buddha’s evil cousin and nemesis, Devadatta, who otherwise does not play a major role in the regular accounts of the life of Sakyamuni. The story appears to be based on no known Buddhist literary source.
In this paper I will describe the events recorded in the Los Angeles book of drawings and recount the story as it appears in the caption to the illustrations. Based on the events recorded, I suggest that the narrative may have had a non-Buddhist source.
A Case Study in Religious Continuity: The Bengal Connection: Stone Carved Evidence of Newar Buddhist Methodologies in the Sculpture of Northern and Eastern Bengal
John C. Huntington, Ohio State University
During a detailed examination of subsidiary figures on the Buddhist stele of Ancient Bengal, several elements have come to light that suggest Buddhist soteriological methodologies still current among the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley were also practiced in Bengal of the ninth through twelfth centuries. Specifically sculptural figures of Vajrasattva as the officiating priest, Manjusri as Vairocana and images of deities from both the Namasangiti’ Dharmadhatu Vagisvara Manjughosa mandala and the Samvarodaya Cakrasamvara mandala cycles suggest a close relationship between practices in Bengal and those in the Kathmandu Valley. This connection is especially interesting in light of the tradition from the Svayambhupurana that the great Nepali Buddhist Saint Shantikaracharya was himself from Gaur and that his line of initiation (diksha) as the first Vajracharya priest (who during certain rituals is understood to be Vajrasattva) took place in Nepal under the tutelage of Manjudeva, an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Mahacina Manjusri.
While it is not possible to suggest a primacy for either area, it is certain that both historically and religiously the ancient areas of Gaur in Bengal and the Kathmandu Valley had close connections for a considerable period of time. The physical resemblance of some of the carvings to current ritual practice is both remarkable and yet, in a conservative traditional society, expected.