Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal

Todd T. Lewis

Description

This book demonstrates how popular ritual texts and story narratives have shaped the religious life and culture of the only surviving South Asian Mahayana Buddhist society, the Newars of Kathmandu. It begins with an account of the Newar Buddhist community's history and its place within the religious environment of Nepal and proceeds to build around five popular translations, several of which were known across Asia: the Srngabheri Avadana, the Simhalasarthabahu Avadana, the Tara, the Mahakala Vratas, and the Pancaraksa. Lewis documents how the respective texts have been domesticated in Nepal's art and architecture, healing traditions, and rituals. He shows how they provide paradigmatic case studies that transcend the Nepalese context, illustrating universal practices or issues in all Buddhist communities, such as gender relations and stupa veneration, the role of merchants, ethnicity, violence, devotions to celestial bodhisattvas by kings and women, and the role of mantra recitations and healing rituals in the lives of Buddhists.

Foreword by Gregory Schopen
Preface

1. Introduction: Buddhism as a Pragmatic Religious Tradition

Popular Narratives and their “Domestication” in Buddhist Communities
The Development of Buddhist Ritualism
The Ritual Innovations of Mahayana Buddhism
Nepal and Newar Buddhism
The Context and Paradoxes of Modernity

2. Stupas and Spouses: The Shrngabheri Avadana

Background
Translation
The Domestication of the Text
Observations on the History of Practical Buddhism

3. Merchants, Demonesses, and Missionary Faith: The Simhalasarthabahu Avadana

Background
Translation
The Domestication of the Text
Observations on the History of Practical Buddhism

4. Devotions to a Celestial Bodhisattva: The Tara Vrata

Background
Translation
The Domestication of the Text

5. Invoking the Powers of the Buddhist “Dark Lord”: The Caturdashi Vrata of Mahakala

Background
Translation
The Domestication of the Text
Vratas and the History of Practical Buddhism

6. The Refuge of Recitation: The Pañcaraksa

Buddhism amid Disease in the Premodern World
Background
Translation
The Domestication of the Pañcaraksa Texts
Observations on the History of Practical Buddhism

7. Summary and Conclusions

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• East Asian religions
• Buddhism

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 07 septembre 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791492437
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal

SUNY series in Buddhist Studies Matthew Kapstein, Editor

Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal

Narratives and Rituals of Newar Buddhism

Todd T. Lewis

Translations in Collaboration with Subarna Man Tuladhar and Labh Ratna Tuladhar

Foreword by Gregory Schopen

S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2000 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, record- ing, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y. 12246

Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Patrick Durocher

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Popular Buddhist texts from Nepal: narratives and rituals of Newar Bud- dhism/Todd T. Lewis; translations in collaboration with Subarna Man Tuladhar & Labh Ratna Tuladhar. p.cm.—(SUNY series in Buddhist studies) Includes index. ISBN 0-7914-4611-5 (hc.: alk. paper)—ISBN 0-7914-4612-3 (pb.: alk. paper) 1. Buddhist literature—Nepal—History and criticism. 2. Buddhist lit- erature, Sanskrit—History and criticism. 3. Mahayana Buddhism— Nepal. I. Lewis, Todd Thornton, 1952- II. Tuladhar, Subarna Man, 1940- Ratna, 1945-III. Tuladhar, Labh Ratna. IV. Series.

BQ1029.N352 M36 2000 294.3’85—dc21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

99-045350

To Joy

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Contents

Foreword by Gregory Schopen

Preface

Chapter 1. Introduction: Buddhism as a Pragmatic Religious Tradition

Popular Narratives and their “Domestication” in Buddhist Communities The Development of Buddhist Ritualism The Ritual Innovations of Mahayana Buddhism Nepal and Newar Buddhism The Context and Paradoxes of Modernity

Chapter 2.Stupas and Spouses: The ShrngabheriAvadana Background Translation The Domestication of the Text Observations on the History of Practical Buddhism

Chapter 3. Merchants, Demonesses, and Missionary Faith: TheSimhalasarthabahu Avadana Background Translation The Domestication of the Text Observations on the History of Practical Buddhism

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2 7 9 11 18

21 22 28 36 39

49 50 54 81 86

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Contents

Chapter 4. Devotions to a Celestial Bodhisattva: TheTaraVrata

Background Translation The Domestication of the Text

Chapter 5. Invoking the Powers of the Buddhist “Dark Lord”: TheCaturdashiVrata of Mahakala

Background Translation The Domestication of the Text Vratas and the History of Practical Buddhism

Chapter 6. The Refuge of Recitation: ThePañcaraksa Buddhism amid Disease in the Premodern World Background Translation The Domestication of thePañcaraksaTexts Observations on the History of Practical Buddhism

Chapter 7. Summary and Conclusions

Notes

Bibliography

Index

89 91 95 107

109 109 110 113 115

119 119 121 130 153 161

165

181

205

231

Foreword

It is a curious fact that scholars interested in Mahayana Buddhism in India have paid so little attention to Nepal—indeed it may actu- ally be perverse. It was Nepal, after all, that first revealed, and con- tinued to supply, most of the Mahayana literature we have in San- skrit. We have read, and continue to read, texts like the AstasahasrikaPrajñaparamita, which have been judged significant, in editions based solely on manuscripts from Nepal. But we have usedthese texts—and here’s the rub—in our own peculiar way: we have onlyreadthem (and that very selectively), as if this were the only thing they were for. We have not, moreover, approved—in fact likely seen as silly—what the Nepalese themselves did with these same texts: some, but very few, read them, too; most however, recit- ed or had them recited (and recitation is not at all the same thing as our ‘reading’), copied or had them copied when their mother died, worshipped them with aromatic powders, unguents, and pastes, or carried or saw them carried in procession. Such behavior implies a very different conception of the nature and function of sacred texts in a culture other than our own, but it is characteristic of South Asia. Mr. Edward Dimock, for example, in a delightful little book entitledMr. Dimock Explains the Mysteries of the East(Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books, 1999), has recently described an amusing meeting between our values and those long held in South Asia. After repeated attempts to get access to (read: “capture”) and old and therefore, for us, particularly valuable Bengali manuscript, this is what occurred at the moment of success:

When they reached the village, there, sure enough, were the village headman and the communist official, all smiles and affability. They led the way to the temple, where the priest greeted them as if they were long-lost relatives and brought

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