Buddhism in Nepal

Buddhism in Kathmandu Valley originated with Lichchavis. Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, a princely scion of the Sakya clan born about 563 B.C. at Lumbini, near the frontiers of Bihar, inside Nepal. Miraculously stepping forth from queen Maya’s side as she rested in the Lumbini grove, the new-born infant took seven steps (Saptapada) to symbolize his role as a universal monarch. Succeeding steps led the Buddha away from Nepal- the land of his birth, to which he would never return. The remainder of his mortal career was spent nearby in Magadha, near the Terai of Nepal. Although Buddhism from Kashmir and Magadha started diminishing, Mahayana Buddhism survived in the Kathmandu Valley. In the third century B.C. Buddhism flowed northward. The Mourya emperor Ashoka patronized it and went further south to Sri Lanka. From Sravasti, Buddha’s chief disciple Ananda visited Kathmandu. Early Nepali Buddhism as in India followed the teaching of Gautama Buddha, and it was known as Sravaka Yana (Way of Disciples), Theravada (School of the Elders) and the Hinayana “little vehicle” (lesser way.)

Early Buddhism was a system of ethics concerned with personal salvation. The Buddha was considered mortal, and there were no deities: humanity was the instrument of its fate. The primary goal was transcending the Self (nirvana); it could be achieved by extinguishing desire, which bound one to rebirth and an eternal round of painful existence. As the means to this end the Buddha prescribed a disciplinary eight-fold path, to be followed in company with other disciplines (Sravaka). Men and women gathered into celibate communities (Samgha). Housed in a monastery (vihara), the monks and nuns devoted themselves to studying the sutra, the doctrinal texts considered to have emanated from the Buddha. Originally since, there were no divinities, there were no objects of worship; but in time, the symbolic stupa filled the void and at length, the image of Buddha himself. In the third century B.C. the Theravada communities in the Kathmandu Valley joined the adherents of a new doctrine Mahayana (Great Vehicle) Buddhism. Mahayana doctrine espoused belief in the Bodhisattva, an enlightened one who defers Nirvana to aid others in its attainment. As further departure form orthodoxy, the Mahavanists proclaimed the divinity of the Buddha,  joined to him a divine host, and issued new Canonical texts (Vajravana). Tantric Buddhism was know n in the Kathmandu Valle by the 7th century A.D. (Lichchavi inscriptions).  By the end of the 12th century, a change came to Buddhism, and monasticism started to decline. Viharas were by no means retreats, but stood in the cities and towns, adjacent to Hindu temples, surrounded by the houses of the laity—both Buddha Margi and Shiva Margi, and often of the monks’ own families. Viharas then integrated with cities in the context of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, and the monks and nuns were apparently able to exist as islands of socially egalitarian, celibate communities, physically close but socially distinct from the surrounding society. Hindus and lay Buddhists were slowly becoming a single caste-oriented community that conformed to Hindu social tradition. The practice of vajrayana gave impetus to monks and nuns go out of Samghas and enter the social and secular milieu. The conventional celibate community ceased to have the same value it had as one of the three jewels, Dharma— Samgha—Buddha. Celibacy was nullified by the ritualistic practices associated with the female principle. Prajna, learned Yogins and siddhas (and the disciples who sought them as teachers) were often solitary wanderers without a fixed base in Vihara

The Samgha was traditionally composed of an egalitarian congregation. Such theoretical social stratification as existed— arhat (adepts), bhiksu (mendicants), Sravaka (readers), and cailaka (scantily robed, that is ascetics)—was based on individual achievement. There was upward mobility. But at length a caste-like hierarchy had evolved inside the viharas that reflected the caste-structured society outside the walls. An anomalous kind of cleric had emerged known as Vajracharya, “Master of thunderbolt,”“Master of absolute power.”

These religious masters replaced the arhats, or similar heads of the samgha, but unlike them had become ineffective Buddhist priests. Socially they outranked the rest of the samgha, composed of ordinary bhiksu (Monks), or Sakyabhiksu, a name derived from Sakyamuni Buddha, the Sakya sage, from whom the monks claimed common descent. That such an internal hierarchy had begun by at least the 12th century is evident from a number of Buddhist manuscripts copied by persons already using the distinguishing titles Vajracharya-bhiksu and Sakyabhiksu.

Then another change came into these societies. Highly respected Brahmin priests, Vajracharya and Sakya-bhiksu began to marry. These Vajracharya, or Vandya, were granted by society an elevated hierarchical position. The Vajracharyas, who commanded the highest rank in the religious community, continued to occupy it in the secular context. Even Vajracharyas who no longer chose to function as priests automatically belonged to a religious aristocracy if they confirmed their status by the observance of the proper initiation rites. Literally, they became “Buddhist Brahmans.” The monks below them who were not Vajracharyas retained the honorific title bhiksu or sakya-bhisku, even when they were in effect no longer monks. As part of the lay community, these “Worthy ones” occupied an elevated standing comparable to the Brahmans and Chhetri, the upper divisions of the four Hindu Varnas. Beneath the Vandya came the rest of the Buddhist community: Uray (Udas), the merchant trader group, in essence viashya; the Jyapus as Sudras; and finally the low caste occupational groups. Thus the Buddhist community essentially became a formally caste-structured counter part of the Hindu one. In the case of Vajracharya and Sakya-Bhiksu, their elevated position in the society was no longer earned through individual wisdom, religious endeavor or even magical skill, but was automatically conferred by heredity.

To confirm one’s right in either class, it was merely necessary for the individual to submit in childhood to a symbolic right of tonsure and mock acceptance of the monk’s vows. If the onetime monks did not abandon the viharas altogether, they assumed the property rights to those in which they had dwelt as a part of a samgha and held them in perpetuity for themselves and their descendants.

The Vajracharyas monopolized the worship of the Viharas deities and gathered the attendant emoluments. For a fee they also ministered the domestic rites of the Buddhist laity, now including the Sakya-bhiksu. These Sakya-bhiksu could not act in a full priestly capacity, but only as assistants in sacerdotal affairs. Many Vajracharyas at length forsook any priestly functions at all, or adopted in addition secondary professions that became hereditary. But in any event, the title was retained (as a surname). The Sakya-bhiksus, who similarly converted their title to a family name, Sakya (like Sakyamuni, from whom they claimed descent) largely followed the crafts they already knew, in particular gold - and silversmithing and the manufacture of religious images. The viharas served as their dwelling place, workshop, and foundry. Thus the Viharas corresponded loosely to guildhalls. They were occupied by families pursuing hereditary professions and enjoying high social esteem with all the rights and privileges this entailed in a caste-structured society. Yet at the same time, the sacred shrines and the images within were preserved, and the viharas served as centers for the socio-religious affairs of the entire Buddhist community. The destruction of viharas in India by Muslims made people to move to Kathmandu and to shelter in viharas but during the Malla period Samgha drifted and became secularized. These Samgha, due to external and internal pressure during succeeding centuries, mixed with the social environment and dissolved. By A.D.1382, when Sthiti Malla was the king, the secularization of the viharas was well underway, and caste as it functioned in the Buddhist community was already well- established by social custom. It later was given official sanction.

Posted on : 2010-04-14 06:22:01

Comments (2)