TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ii Introduction iv 1 History of Nepal: pre-historic to the present 2 A historical overview of Nepalese history, focusing on the Kathmandu Valley, the Three Kingdoms therein, and the Newars. 2 Evolution of Buddhism: Siddartha Gautama to Vajrayana 12 The evolution of Buddhism from its advent in the sixth century BCE to the development of Vajrayana, the last major phase in Indian Buddhism. 3 Vajrayana Buddhism in the Newar social context 27 Manifestation of Vajrayana Buddhist in contemporary Newar social context. Emphasis on the eccentricities of Newar Buddhism and explanations thereof. 4 "India in the making..." 45 Synopsis of the various catalysts contributing to the fall of Buddhism in India and the correlation with contemporary Bhaktapur. Conclusion 56 Appendixes 60 The calendar 60 The Newar caste system 61 The Newar pantheon 62 Caste hierarchy from Law Code of 1854 63 Map of Nepal 65 Map of the Kathmandu Valley 66 Map of Bhaktapur 67 Glossary of commonly used terms 68 Bibliography 70 © 1996 Jake Norton. All Rights Reserved. © 1996 Jake Norton. All Rights Reserved. ii Preface My interest in Nepal began long ago when I became involved in mountaineering. Nepal is a tiny Hindu kingdom situated in the heart of the Himalaya, a mountaineer's paradise. During my senior year at Holderness School, the opportunity arose to travel to Nepal for a trek and climb in the Langtang Valley, north of Kathmandu. My initial interest was centered solely around mountaineering; however, I quickly realized that Nepal offers the visitor far more than beautiful scenery and high mountains. After that first trip, I found myself wanting to know more about this far-away land, it's people, it's heritage. Thus, I enrolled for a semester abroad program in Nepal through the School for International Training/World Learning, Inc. Rather than satiating my curiosity for Nepal, this program merely intensified it. Thus, I found myself at the University of Washington's South Asia Library this summer. Surrounded by a plethora of books on various topics relating in one way or another to Nepal, I tried to find a suitable topic for my Senior Thesis. This proved far more difficult than I had planned; everything, from Saivism to the environment, Tantric mandalas to the 1991 Revolution, interested me. Eventually, I decided to simply sit back and ask myself what it was that struck me most about Nepal during my first two visits. The answer came suddenly and unexpectedly: I remembered the harmonious way in which the two dominant faiths of Nepal, Hinduism and Buddhism, and their adherents, interacted. This, I decided, was what I would research. This thesis, and the research conducted for it, would not have been possible without the help of many people. First, I would like to thank my advisors, Professors Jonathan Lee © (Philosophy)1996 and Timothy CheekJake (History), who unceasingly Norton. offered their insight and assistance when called upon (which, incidentally, was quite often). Also, thanks to Professor Doug Fox, whoseAll knowledge, expoundedRights through his Hinduism and BuddhismReserved. classes, as well as in various iii private meetings, was essential. And, thanks to the Dean's Advisory Committee/Venture Grant Fund for the grant which made my flight to Nepal possible. While in Nepal, I received much assistance from various sources. Todd Nachowitz and Nona Morris, my former Academic Directors for SIT - Nepal, were a great help in finding adequate contacts and research assistants. Kamala Josi, the head of the language program at SIT, was also a great help, as were my other Nepali teachers. Father John K. Locke, a Jesuit minister and eminent scholar of Newar culture, offered relevant insights and "reality-checks" that kept my research within a tangible realm. Tejeswar Babu Gongah, a resident of Bhaktapur, former director of His Majesty's Government's (HMG) Rural Development Program, and free-lance journalist, was indispensable in clarifying my numerous misconceptions and interpretations of Newari culture. Thanks are also due to the innumerable Newars of the Kathmandu Valley who smiled graciously as I fumbled with my camera at their temples and offered polite and enlightening answers to my mundane questions posed in broken Nepali. I owe special thanks to Urgen Sherpa, his wife Paldenchimi, and his children - Sonam, Tschering, Nuru, Lhakpa, and Purba - who allowed me to stay at their house while I did my research. And, of course, thanks to Dad, Mom, and Susan, without whose nurturing, support, open-mindedness (and monetary assistance) this whole experience would have been impossible. © 1996 Jake Norton. All Rights Reserved. iv INTRODUCTION The early twentieth century Indologist, Sylvain Levi, traveled to the Kathmandu Valley in 1898 while on a scholarly tour of the Indian subcontinent. He would later write that "Nepal [meaning the Kathmandu Valley] is India in the making...In a territory so limited that it almost seems to have been designed as a laboratory, the observer can easily grasp the sequence of steps which from ancient India gave rise to modern India."1 However, Nepal was under the strict, isolationist rule of the Rana regime from 1846 to 1950, and thus foreign scholarship therein was nearly impossible. Thus, Levi's "laboratory" remained virtually untouched by scholarly investigation until very recently. After the Revolution of 1950, Nepal again opened its doors to foreigners. This time, however, it was hearty adventurers who rushed across Nepal's borders, avidly seeking paths to her lofty Himalayan summits. These travelers brought back tales of wild mountain dwellers of the Nepalese hinterland, and thus the first contemporary scholarship on Nepal deals primarily with the mountain tribes such as the Sherpa, Tamang, Rai, Limbu, et al. To most, Kathmandu was but another South Asian city which, although exotic in many ways, was a mere convenient stepping- stone on the way to the Himalaya. The "laboratory" was often visited, but rarely noticed. The past twenty years, however, have marked a rediscovery of Kathmandu's unique significance in South Asian scholarship. Anthropologists such as Father John Locke, Robert Levy, David Gellner, Declan Quigley, and others have begun to unravel the threads of ancient India which are woven into the fabric of contemporary Kathmandu. This thesis is an attempt to tug on those threads yet a little more. With that intent in mind, we will begin by looking at the general history of Nepal (which, © for1996 our intents and purposes, Jakemeans the Kathmandu Valley), Norton. from the earliest records to the present. As with any investigation, one must first understand all its historical components before 1 All Rights Reserved. Levi, Sylvain. 1905. Le Nepal: Etude historique d'un royaume hindou. Paris: Leroux. Volume I, p. 28. From Gellner and Quigley 1995: 3. v trying to comprehend its contemporary manifestation and identity. Chapter One will detail the historical processes which underlie and shape the Valley and thus the processes which also underlie and shape the Newars - the original inhabitants of the Valley. The Newars practice a form of Buddhism known as Vajrayana, or "The Diamond Vehicle". This form of Buddhism represents the last major development in South Asian2 Buddhism, and the Newars in turn represent the last practitioners of traditional South Asian Buddhism in the world. Again, in keeping with the idea of setting the stage before beginning the play, Chapter Two will detail the philosophical evolution of South Asian Buddhism, culminating in the development of Vajrayana. Newar society, as with South Asian societies in general, is complex. Comprehension if Newar society's caste-based, ritualistic, and secretive structure is a prerequisite to any understanding of its contemporary dynamics. Thus, the first half of Chapter Three will outline the structure of Newar society. With this completed, the second half of Chapter Three will explain how Vajrayana practice is manifest within Newar society. Special attention will be paid to Bhaktapur, the "old-city" of Kathmandu. Chapter Three will also show, through explanation of the internal dynamics of Newar society, how modern assertions that Newar Buddhism is corrupt, that it is Hinduism in all but name, or even that it is syncretic, are based upon misinterpretation and false premises. Having set the historical and philosophical stage, we will be ready to experiment in the laboratory that is the Kathmandu Valley. The first part of Chapter Four will note the principal inter-cultural catalysts which, intensified by the late twelfth-century Muslim invasions, led to the disappearance of Buddhism in India. If Kathmandu is indeed a laboratory, then Bhaktapur, by far the most traditional city in the Valley, is the best place to conduct our experiment. Thus, the © 2I1996 use the term "South Asian" hereJake to refer to what is now modern Norton. India. The modern state of India carries with it too many geo-political connotations to use the term freely and without qualification. The birthplace of Buddha, and thus the birthplace of Buddhism, was Lumbini, a village in ancient India, but within the boundaries of modern Nepal. Buddhism was born out of the social climate of the South Asian cultural regionAll as a whole, a reflectionRights of its strengths and weaknesses, consistenciesReserved. and idiosyncrasies. Thus, when the term "India" is used in this thesis without the qualifying prefix "modern", it should be taken to mean South Asia in general and not the modern-day manifestation of political India. vi second half of Chapter Four will outline the correlation between twelfth century India and contemporary Bhaktapur, detailing the inter-cultural dynamics of a Buddhist minority interacting within a dominant Hindu framework: the same dynamic which led to the elimination of Buddhism in India. This thesis is therefore of interest to students of Nepal, Buddhism, and South Asia in general.

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