Newar Buddhism is the form of VajrayanaBuddhism practiced by the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.[1][2] It has developed unique socio-religious elements, which include a non-monastic Buddhist society based on the Newar caste system and patrilineality. The ritual priestly (guruju) caste, vajracharya (who perform rituals for others) and shakya (who perform rituals mostly within their own families) form the non-celibate religious clergy caste while other Buddhist Newar castes like the Urāy act as patrons. Uray also patronise Tibetan Vajrayana, Theravadin, and even Japanese clerics.[3] It is the oldest known sect of the Vajrayana tradition outdating the Tibetan school of Vajrayana by more than 600 years.[citation needed]
Although there was a vibrant regional tradition of Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley during the first millennium, the transformation into a distinctive cultural and linguistic form of Buddhism appears to have taken place in the fifteenth century, at about the same time that similar regional forms of Indic Buddhism such as those of Kashmir and Indonesia were on the wane.
Newar Buddhism has a group of nine Sanskrit Mahayana sutras called the Navagrantha, these are considered the key Mahayana sutra texts of the tradition. They are:[4][5]
Newar Buddhism is characterized by its extensive and detailed rituals, a rich artistic tradition of Buddhist monuments and artwork like the chaitya (stupa), Baha and Bahi monastic courtyards, statues, paubha scroll paintings and mandala sand paintings, and by being a storehouse of ancient Sanskrit Buddhist texts, many of which are now only extant in Nepal.[6]
According to the authors of Rebuilding Buddhism: The Theravada Movement in Twentieth-Century Nepal: "Today traditional Newar Buddhism is unquestionably in retreat before Theravada Buddhism."[7] Chachā (Charyā) ritual song and dance and Gunlā Bājan music are other artistic traditions of Newar Buddhism.[8] Although Newar Buddhism was traditionally bound to the Kathmandu Valley and its environs, there is at least one new Newar Buddhist temple in Portland, Oregon.[9]
Seto Machindranath Jatra at the Temple of Annapurna
A number of major street celebrations are held periodically involving processions, displays of Buddha images and services in the three cities of the Kathmandu Valley and in other parts of Nepal.
^Novak, Charles M. (1992). "A Portrait of Buddhism in Licchavi Nepal". Buddhist Himalaya: A Journal of Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods. 4 (1, 2). Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
^Ratnakaji Bajracharya (1993), Traditions of Newar Buddhist Culture. "Newa Buddhist Culture Preservation seminar".
^Shakya, Miroj. The Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Project: Problems and Possibilities in "Veidlinger, Daniel (2019) Digital Humanities and Buddhism: An Introduction. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG."
^Gutschow, Niels (November 2011). Architecture of the Newars: A History of Building Typologies and Details in Nepal. Chicago: Serindia Publications. p. 707. ISBN978-1-932476-54-5.
^Widdess, Richard (2004). "Caryā and Cacā: Change and Continuity in Newar Buddhist Ritual Song". Asian Music. 35 (2). University of Texas Press: 7–41. JSTOR4098444.
Gellner, David N. (1992). Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and its Hierarchy of Ritual (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology). Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-38399-8. - Review of this book Theodore Riccardi Jr.
Lewis, Todd L. (2000). Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal: Narratives and Rituals of Newar Buddhism (SUNY Series in Buddhist Studies). State University of New York Publications. ISBN978-0-7914-4611-9.
Tuladhar-Douglas, Will (2006). Remaking Buddhism for Medieval Nepal: The Fifteenth-century Reformation of Newar Buddhism. New York: Routledge. ISBN978-0-415-35919-1.
Tuladhar-Douglas, William (2002). "Newar Buddhism". Religions of the World.
