Between Artistic Rules and Ritual Realities: Homa in Nepalese Paintings (original) (raw)

rNyingmapa rituals in Sikkim and Nepal Divining the future, worshiping ancestors with " mdos " : the selection of salient features in individual biographies in order to frame the vicissitudes of social life

The homogeneity and unity of the whole ritual activity of the Buddhist rNyingmapa populations of Sikkim and Nepal could be found in the pervasiveness of the geometrical crossed threads constructions that we can see as ornaments for dough effigies, animals skulls or isolated in space, inside rNyingmapa's domestic as well as tantric monastic rituals. They can be pure ornamental figures to bring luck and chase bad influences away, or complex constructions with different meanings to lure the demons. One of the paradoxes of these crossed threads constructions is that they can be both container and contents: they can shelter or incorporate momentarily the demonic beings, which are summoned in order to be deceived and destroyed. The aim of this paper is to re-approach rituals with crossed threads called mdos in literary or nam mkha', zor, glud, yas (and eventually, many other local appellations) in Tibetan and non-Tibetan ritual and folk practices. We base our analysis on new and ancient research in Nepal and in Sikkim and we add a comparative perspective, opposing some Sikkimese and less known Nepalese Tamang examples of such rituals with mdos and nam mkha': a divinatory ritual in Sikkim and a ritual for ancestors in Nepal.

Surrounding the Sacred Space: Two Painted Scrolls from the Collection of Namgyal Monastery in Mustang, Nepal

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2020

The Collection of Namgyal Monastery (Mustang, Nepal) preserves two long and narrow scrolls painted on both sides, of exquisite artistic quality. This article describes and investigates the iconographic and symbolic meaning of the paintings and the use of these objects. One of the scrolls shows the Eight Auspicious Symbols and deities that personify diverse group of offerings painted in an elegant Newari style. The other scroll features an intriguing representation of the Eight Charnel Grounds in a continuous landscape. Full of delicate and charming details, it illustrates the Mahasiddhas, Guardians, Nāgas and stupa of the respective directions. The back of both scrolls has a vajra chain at the bottom and flames represented above it. The scrolls must have been used to encircle specific mandalas. Such objects are rather rare, and it is interesting to reflect on their former use, even more so as no contemporaneous objects of that type are known. The stylistic features of the paintings ...

Nepali Paintings: A Departure From Religious Contents to Secular Subject Matters

Tribhuvan University Journal, 2021

Traditional Nepali paintings are religious since they are based on Hindu and Buddhist myths. Manuscript illuminations and paubhas, the examples of religious paintings, have magical and mystical contents. Characters of myths have been portrayed and mythical stories have been narrated in visual form. There are a series of changes from traditional Nepali paintings to contemporary works. In painting, secular elements are introduced through didactic visual narratives from Hitopadesha manuscript. The moral lessons are taught through animal fables. Early paubhas are fully religious but later paubhas include portraits of the donors or the persons who asked to paint the picture at the bottom of the painting. The main part of the painting is religious but the portraits are secular. In later paubhas, the figures of the donors become larger and take equal space in the painting. Gradually, the portrait became bigger than the religious figure at the end of the Malla period. From the beginning of ...

The Dancers Complied, the Chicken Denied: Explorations into the Pragmatic Work of Rituals among the Dumi Rai of Eastern Nepal

Asking what is relevant in a ritual process and to whom, this article follows in detail a short sequence of an agricultural bhume ritual performed by the Dumi Rai of Eastern Nepal. On the basis of this example, it is suggested that moments of excitement or bewilderment among our local key partners can provide points of entry for a deeper understanding of their culture. Discussing the conceptual difference between correct and perfect ritual action, the article arrives at a pragmatic approach to the " work of ritual. " Based on the locally perceived equivalence between ritual work and other, everyday work, it is suggested to employ by analogy a notion of a ritual " working contract " between today's living community and the ancestors who are addressed in the greatest part of rituals among the Rai.

Nepalese Paintings Illustrating Rituals

Most of the Nepalese paintings (patta or paubha) date from the second period of the Malla dynasty (1482-1768) .They often represent a mandala or figures of gods and goddesses of Hinduism and of Vajrayana Buddhism and sometimes they depict monuments or rituals. The Buddhist Nepalese paintings are more numerous than the Hindu paintings. Most of the paintings were displayed on the walls of either temples or monasteries especially on the first floor where are usually kept the statues of gods and goddesses both Hindu and Buddhists. In the Buddhist monasteries the secret tantric sanctuary (agam che) is located on the first floor. Inside private houses, often on the last floor, is a private room which is the private sanctuary of the lineage and is decorated with paintings of the divinity of election (istadevata) of the lineage. The Nepalese paintings were painted on thick cotton cloth and were enclosed by pieces of cotton or a uniform dark

The Importance of Village Shrine: An Ethnographic Study of the Maharaj Than Among the Rajbansi Community, Morang, Nepal

Abstract In this dissertation, I examine the different socio-cultural, political, ritual, religious, historical and environmental-geographical importance/relevance of the village shrine called Maharaj Than or Gramthan among the Rajbansi people, an indigenous people from Nepalʼs easternmost Tarai, Morang. Taking Nisi Puja and the practice of making Bhakal or ʻpetition/requestʼ as an analytic theme in the study of Gramthan, I investigate and argue that the fundamental relation or relevance of the Gramthan and Nisi Puja among the Rajbansi people is to reproduce and give continuity to the Rajbansi community as ʻmoral community.ʼ This analytic theme is important for my ethnographic study because it provides an insights or approach to see Gramthan which not only functions as a site of everyday and annual religious performance; but they also become embedded in the wider socio-religious and political relationship of the respective religious community and beyond. Based on two months long ethnographic fieldwork in the three VDCs of Morang, and frequent visits made especially during the festival called Siruwa Pawani of 2015 and 2016, my ethnographic study not only provides a better/deeper anthropological understanding or insights on how religious practice, culture, and structure of the Rajbansi society are historically interlinked or reflected with the structure of the Maharaj Than, but it also provides an alternative insight to look at the Gramthan and its associated annual ritual performance showing that the everyday and annual ritual among the Rajbansi was a survival strategy in a given time or adverse ecological conditions, environments; i.e. epidemics, threats of wilds and powerful beings.