Newar Buddhism

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Newar Buddhism is the form of Mahayana-Vajrayana Buddhism practiced by the Newar ethnic community of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal.^{[1] [2]} It has developed unique socio-religious elements, which include a non-monastic Buddhist society based on a caste system and patrilinial descent. The ritual priests, Bajracharya or Vajracharya, and their Shakya assistants form the non-celibate religious sangha while other Buddhist Newar castes serve as the laity. 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. As a result, Newar Buddhism seems to preserve some aspects of the Indian Buddhism that were not preserved in Buddhist schools elsewhere.

Newar Buddhism is characterized by its extensive and detailed rituals, a rich artistic tradition of Buddhist monument and artwork, and by being a storehouse of ancient Sanskrit Buddhist texts, many of which are now only extant in Nepal. 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."^[3] Although Newar Buddhism was traditionally bound to the Kathmandu Valley and its environs, there is at least one new Newar Buddhist monastery in Portland, Oregon.^[4]

See also

• Vajracharya

References

1. ^ Locke, John K. (2008). "Unique Features of Newar Buddhism". Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods. http://www.niem.com.np/newararticles/unique_features.htm. Retrieved 2 June 2011. 
2. ^ Yoshizaki, Kazumi (2006). "The Kathmandu Valley as a Water Pot: Abstracts of Research Papers on Newar Buddhism in Nepal". Kumamoto: Kurokami Library. http://www.jn-net.com/yoshizaki/ronbun/NewarBuddhism.htm. Retrieved 2 June 2011. 
3. ^ Rebuilding Buddhism: The Theravada Movement in Twentieth-century Nepal. Harvard University Press. 2005. p. 37. ISBN 9780674019089. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=e9C1iF3MAYgC&. 
4. ^ Founding Ceremonies for Nritya Mandal Vihara

Further reading

• 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. ISBN 978-0791446119. 
• 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. ISBN 978-0521383998. 
• Tuladhar-Douglas, Will (2006). Remaking Buddhism for Medieval Nepal:The Fifteenth-century Reformation of Newar Buddhism. ISBN 978-0415359191. 
• Tuladhar-Douglas, William (2002). "Newar Buddhism". Religions of the World. 

External links

• Bajracharya
• Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon