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Nepal Mandala in an Early Modern South Asia Symposium HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Volume 40 Number 1 Article 14 November 2020 Nepal Mandala in an Early Modern South Asia Symposium Louis Copplestone Harvard University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya Recommended Citation Copplestone, Louis. 2020. Nepal Mandala in an Early Modern South Asia Symposium. HIMALAYA 40(1). Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol40/iss1/14 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Conference Report is brought to you for free and open access by the DigitalCommons@Macalester College at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Conference Reports Nepal Mandala in an Early Modern in an interconnected history of Asia final phase of Indian Buddhism. South Asia Symposium from the fifteenth century onwards, Guy’s presentation clarified the revealing specific instances of long history of these forms and Cambridge, MA trans-regional dialogue in an “early their localization in Nepal besides 6-7 December 2019 modernity” that complicates the hinting at a later trans-regional life perceived isolation of this place at of these objects. Gerard Toffin (CRNS, The Nepal Mandala in an Early Modern this time. Paris) addressed the question of South Asia Symposium was held at localization and “Newar-ness” again Harvard on 6-7 December 2019. The The symposium opened with a with reference to the god Indra as symposium coincided with the final keynote discussion between the he is understood by the Newars of week of an exhibition on Nepalese symposium’s organizers and curators the Kathmandu Valley. Toffin looked Buddhist art, Dharma and Punya: of the coincident exhibition, Jinah at sculptures of Indra and at local Buddhist Ritual Art of Nepal, on show Kim and Todd Lewis, in which they stories to show how this Vedic god at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art reflected on the challenges of the was recast in the Kathmandu Valley Gallery at the College of the Holy exhibition and shared insights on the as a flower thief, restrained by local Cross between 5 September and 14 value of interdisciplinary projects farmers, and how iconographic December 2019, curated by Jinah Kim on the art and culture of Nepal. and religious innovations centered (Harvard) and Todd Lewis (College The first panel of the symposium around the annual Indra Jatra festival of the Holy Cross). In keeping with established the parameters of inquiry emphasize this “culprit facet” of the the aims of the exhibition and its in space—as the “nepāla mandala”—in god. These stories and sculptures, catalog - which brought together three presentations starting with Toffin suggested, evince interactions many famous and lesser known Eric Huntington (Rice University). between classical Sanskrit models objects of the Malla and the Shah Huntington presented, with visual and the specific cultural and religious periods to reappraise the relationship guides drawn from painting and practices of the Newars. between ritual, art, and society - the architecture, the core ritual of Nepal Mandala symposium addressed tantric Buddhism: the offering of a The second panel of the day brought the art and culture of Nepal in an mandala and the re-creation of an this localized Nepal Mandala into an expanded field, looking to the “early entire cosmos within it. Drawing early modern era, associated by most modern” period and trans-regionality on examples from eastern India, panelists with the late Malla period specifically. the Newar tradition, and Tibet, (c. 1482 - 1768). Gundrun Buhnemann Huntington revealed the often (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Focusing on the Kathmandu Valley, subtle differences between these to began by proposing that the rulers known historically as nepāla maṇḍala, identify specifically Nepalese forms of the Kathmandu Valley’s three the symposium brought together of this mandala practice and its independent kingdoms not only anthropologists, scholars of religion manifestations is art. worshipped the goddess Taleju—as and art historians to discuss diverse is well known—but from the mid- but interconnected subjects such John Guy (Metropolitan Museum 17th century onwards increasingly as the localization of iconography, of Art) continued this theme in presented themselves as the servants art practices and technologies, his exposition of the Vajracharya of the divinity Hanuman. Exploring deity possession, jewelry, trade, crowns worn by ritual experts in the promotion of Hanuman worship festivals, and art education. Thirteen Newar Buddhist communities, through sculpture and iconography, presentations in four panels stressed tracing these crowns and the history Buhnemann argued that forms of this the place of the Kathmandu Valley of these ritual experts back to the deity, while popular across South Asia 116 | HIMALAYA Fall 2020 at this time, exhibit specifically local synthesizing modes of European first half of the twentieth century, traits in their fierce manifestations watercolor painting, “Rajput” such as the visit of prominent found particularly in the palaces of painting, and earlier local traditions Tibetan Lamas to the Valley before the Kathmandu Valley. Jinah Kim working from model books and 1959 and the relationship between (Harvard University) turned towards transported artworks to aid the the Karmapa and Newar tantric the social history and technology narrative, ritual, and social impact teachers. Dipti Sherchan (University of manuscripts in early modern of manuscripts such as this Rana of Illinois at Chicago) brought this Nepal to show how scribal and Devimahatmya. panel to a close with a paper on the painting practices in the Kathmandu establishment of the first “formal Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz Valley simultaneously exemplify Western-style art school” in Nepal (Pennsylvania State University) vernacularization and make trans- in the 1950s. Sherchan brought explored efforts of localization regional allusions. Focusing on together a wider range of archival apparent in the narrative of the manuscripts produced in the 16th material to emphasize the shift from Goddess Svasthani, asking what this and 17th centuries in particular, Kim a tradition of court painters to an folk story can tell us about Nepal’s discussed manuscript colophons and emergent system of art schools, with cultural and political positionality ritual scenes depicted in painting clearly defined syllabi and modes of in the early modern period. As to show how “vernacularization” in teaching, such as the Juddha Kala Birkenholtz showed, this story, language and practice accompanied Pathshala. Sherchan contextualized which recounts the redemptive experiments in paper format and in this form of art education in Nepal and punishing powers of the local print that unveil trans-Himalayan within the shifting orders of Nepali goddess Svasthani, underwent connections. Kerry Lucinda Brown patronage under the Ranas and the a process of “Puranicization” (Savannah College of Art and Design) emergence of national art and a between the mid-eighteenth and investigated the use of public ritual “modern” nation-state of Nepal. the early twentieth centuries, that celebrations by Newar communities reveals an engagement with social, The symposium ended with a panel in the late Malla Period to navigate religious, and political conversations addressing the Nepal Mandala in an increasingly complex social and taking place across South Asia. “global terms”, opening with Ellen political context. Brown examined Notably, Birkenholtz argued that Coon’s (Independent Scholar) the gift-giving festivals of Pancadana this text reveals a trans-regional discussion of instances of deity and Samyak Mahadana specifically consciousness in the lay population possession and its role in giving voice to demonstrate how Newar of Nepal despite the ruling elites’ to Newar women at a time of rapid communities used art and spectacle best efforts towards closing Nepal off ecological change in the Kathmandu to affirm cultural and religious in this period. Todd Lewis (College Valley. Coon’s presentation identified authority in a Valley undergoing of the Holy Cross) continued to a commonality between the Newars change. stress trans-regional connections as “indigenous inhabitants of the The third panel of the day addressed between Nepal and beyond in this Kathmandu Valley” and the global later cases within this trans- period in his presentation on the indigenous movement – making region. Louis Copplestone (Harvard impacts of the British Younghusband this case with reference to their University) presented a large-scale expedition of 1904-5 to Lhasa on strong identification with place 124-folio painted manuscript made life in the Kathmandu Valley. and “with the land that they call in Kathmandu for an elite Rana Lewis Contextualizied this early home”. Coon explored how deity patron in 1863. He suggested that this twentieth century moment within possession gives voice to Newar work mobilized an unprecedented a long history of trans-Himalayan women in these global terms, and diverse range of painting interaction, and argued that this defending the sacredness and value techniques and technologies in a particular expedition brought of the land
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