Icons Marking the Communal Performance of Buddhist Rituals

Alexander von Rospatt

Golden relief on copper plaque depicting stupa and deity behind horse-drawn chariot carrying two figures

Plaque Commemorating the Celebration of the Bhimaratha Old Age Ritual; Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription 1775; copper repoussé; 17½ × 11 1/8 × 3 5/8 in. (44.5 × 28.3 × 9.2 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2006.66.63 (HAR 700095)

Plaque Commemorating the Bhimaratha Old Age Ritual

Kathmandu, Nepal November 1775

Plaque Commemorating the Celebration of the Bhimaratha Old Age Ritual; Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription 1775; copper repoussé; 17½ × 11 1/8 × 3 5/8 in. (44.5 × 28.3 × 9.2 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2006.66.63 (HAR 700095)

Summary

Nepalese icons often commemorate a particular ritual event. This copper image with Buddhist deities memorializes a ceremony to celebrate an elderly couple’s age of seventy-seven, during which their sons pulled them through the city on a chariot and a tantric priest performed fire rituals. Scholar of Newar Buddhism Alexander von Rospatt introduces these commemorative icons of Kathmandu, showing how Buddhist ritual and commissioning art is part of everyday life for families and communities.

Key Terms

donor

In Buddhist context, donor is a person who contributes to or commissions a religious work of art. This act is intended to increase merit on behalf of the benefactor and is dedicated to the benefit of all. It is also usually done for a specific purpose, such as longevity, prosperity, or well-being; to advance religious practice; or to ensure a good rebirth of a deceased relative, teacher, or friend. A similar practice is also known in Hinduism and Bon.

iconography

In the Himalayan context, iconography refers to the forms found in religious images, especially the attributes of deities: body color, number of arms and legs, hand gestures, poses, implements, and retinue. Often these attributes are specified in ritual texts (sadhanas), which artists are expected to follow faithfully.

Newar

The Newars are traditional inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. The Newars speak a Tibeto-Burman language (Newari) and practice both Hinduism and Buddhism. The Newars are inheritors of one of the oldest and most sophisticated urban civilizations of the Himalayas, and Newar arts and artisans have been celebrated all across the Himalayan world since the Licchavi period.

stupa

Stupas are monuments that initially contained cremated remains of Buddha Shakyamuni or important monks, his disciples, and subsequently other material and symbolic relics associated with the Buddha’s body, teaching, and enlightened mind. As representations of the Buddha’s presence in the world, stupas with their contents—texts, relics, tsatsas—continue to be important objects of Buddhist worship in their diverse forms of domed structures, multistoried pagodas, and portable sculptures. The original form of stupas was an earthen dome-shaped mound containing the remains in reliquary vessels or urns deposited within the innermost core. The dome would often be successively enlarged and surrounded by a path for a walk around in a clockwise direction and veneration (circumambulation)

Ushnishavijaya

In Mahayana Buddhism, Ushnishavijaya was the name of a particular dharani incantation popular across the Buddhist world. In the Vajrayana tradition, Ushnishavijaya became personified as a deity, usually depicted as a serene white six-armed female. Ushnishavijaya rituals are often performed as wishes for long-life, and the deity is one of the three deities of long-life, along with Amitayus and White Tara.

vrata

In Hinduism, a vrata is a devotional ritual, often performed by women. Vratas typically involve making a vow of purity and fasting for a period. They can also include making a pilgrimage to a Hindu shrine, giving charitable donations, or other types of piety.

yatra

In Hinduism, a yatra is a pilgrimage to a particular shrine or sacred place. Many important temples and pithas have a set date for a yearly mass-pilgrimage.

Bhimaratha

Bhimaratha is a communal ceremony performed by the Newar people of the Kathmandu valley to celebrate the date when an elder turns seventy-seven years, seven months, and seven days old. During the ceremony, the elder and his or her spouse are pulled through the streets in a chariot by their children, whereby they are “deified” in the community. Artworks are often commissioned to commemorate the event.

Commemorative Icons

Icons in the Nepalese tradition of Kathmandu, mainly scroll paintings, more rarely metal objects such as the plaque described here, commemorate the performance of a particular ritual. Typically, such objects depict the principal  to whom the ritual is dedicated and the main scenes of the ritual. Particularly prominent is the commemoration and depiction of the ritual, as in the gilded-copper plaque here. This ritual is celebrated when the elder has become seven decades, seven years, seven months, and seven days old. Husbands celebrate this ritual with their wives as a couple, irrespective of their spouses’ age. However, women, if widowed or unmarried, celebrate this ritual on their own when they themselves reach this age. The elaborate ceremonies include apotropaic rites of appeasement (shanti), ensuring that the elder lives beyond the completion of seven “extended” decades as he (or she) enters (by Nepalese counting) the potentially calamitous eighth decade. At the same time, the ceremonies serve to sacralize and venerate the elder alongside his wife, with whom he is celebrated and mounts the bhima chariot (ratha) so as to be conveyed around town by his family, just as deities are.

As we learn from the inscription at the bottom of the plaque here, the elders on the chariots are a certain Chintamuni and his wife Ratnalakshmi, coppersmiths from the quarter of Madu (in Kathmandu). The “old age ritual [Newari: jyatha jako] of ascending to heaven [svargarohana] [when reaching] seventy-seven years” was performed for them by their “two [sons], Amritamuni and Jayadharmamuni,” on Sunday, November 11, 1775. The horses pulling the chariot—in ritual practice they are represented in wood or drawings on paper—suggest that it is equated with the sun, whom horses pull across the firmament.

The inscription identifies the plaque as a “golden image of the thrice-illustrious Ushnishavijaya the Buddhist deity of longevity. In accordance with her standard , she is portrayed as eight-armed and multifaced, and set in the dome of a . The stupa here is executed in the likeness of the Svayambhu chaitya, because this is the archetypical stupa in the Nepalese tradition. The point is not to represent Svayambhu per se, but to appropriately render Ushnishavijaya, who is propitiated here as part of the bhimarahta to prolong the life of the celebrated elders. However, not only is Svayambhu depicted as a backdrop for Ushnishavijaya, but the artist also took great care to render faithfully the details of the chaitya, particularly its crowning superstructure (fig. 2). For this, he clearly drew upon an architectural drawing (or on a shared source) that had been made on the occasion of the chaitya’s renovation some twenty years earlier. Additionally, tied to the mythology of Svayambhu, on the left is rendered with his emblematic raised sword and the equally emblematic monkey offering a jackfruit.

Plaque finial depicting stupa with flower garlands descending from canopy and moon and sun motifs
Fig. 2.

Detail of Plaque Commemorating the Celebration of the Bhimaratha Old Age Ritual, showing finial of the Svayambhu chaitya; Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription 1775; copper repoussé; Rubin Museum of Art; Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2006.66.63 (HAR 700095)

The finial is flanked by the moon and sun, and crowned by the parasol; the central pillar (yashti) protruding through the series of thirteen rings (chakravali), has a crystal resting in a depression hollowed out in its upper surface.

Painted Scrolls Commemorating the Bhimaratha Old Age Rituals

The performance of the bhimaratha is commemorated most often with painted scrolls (). Typically, their iconography accords with the plaque here, but is more complex, and the depiction of the ceremony is more detailed. An exquisite example is a painted scroll from 1830 (fig. 3), formerly in the Jucker Collection. Ushnishavijaya is seen in the dome of a chaitya that again resembles Svayambhu. The painter was careful to render the chaitya in its mythological context as resting upon a lotus blossom rising above the waters that once covered the Nepal Valley. The chaitya is flanked by a set of large fearsome (krodha) deities encircling and protecting Ushnishavijaya in the center—on the left, the blue and the yellow (fig. 4), and on the right red, and green (fig. 5). In addition, the nine planetary deities (navagraha) are distributed around the chaitya, at left from the bottom, Aditya, Soma, Mangala, and Budha up to Brihaspati, and at right from the top, Shukra, Sani, Rahu, and Ketu, up to the deity standing for the configuration under which the elder was born (janman). They are included because as part of the bhimaratha ritual the celebrants propitiate the planets to ward off their potentially malign influences. Folded into their propitiation, the elders also worship the Five Protector Goddesses (), who are depicted here in the socle of the chaitya (fig. 6).

Painting in acid tones depicting white chaitya situated in mountain landscape surrounded by irregular grid of portraits
Fig. 3

Painted Scroll of Bhimaratha Ritual; Hāku Bāhāḥ, Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription January 1830; distemper and gold on cloth; 35 × 23 in. (89 × 58.5 cm); Private collection; photograph by Alexander von Rospatt, December 20, 2003, in home of Mischa Jucker, Basel, Switzerland

Portraits depicting yellow- and blue-skinned wrathful deities with fiery nimbuses and eight planetary deities
Fig. 4

Detail of Painted Scroll of Bhimaratha Ritual, showing krodha and planetary deities to the left of the chaitya; Hāku Bāhāḥ, Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription January 1830; Private collection; photograph by Alexander von Rospatt, December 20, 2003, in home of Mischa Jucker, Basel, Switzerland

Portraits depicting red- and green-skinned wrathful deities with fiery nimbuses and eight planetary deities
Fig. 5

Detail of Painted Scroll of Bhimaratha Ritual, showing krodha and planetary deities to the right of the chaitya; Hāku Bāhāḥ, Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription January 1830; Private collection; photograph by Alexander von Rospatt, December 20, 2003, in home of Mischa Jucker, Basel, Switzerland

Detail of plinth supporting lotus pedestal featuring nine deity portraits and dish containing gold and white implements
Fig. 6

Detail of Painted Scroll of Bhimaratha Ritual, showing the socle of the Svaymabhu chaitya with the four-faced and eight-armed protector goddesses known an Pancharakshas; Hāku Bāhāḥ, Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription January 1830; Private collection; photograph by Alexander von Rospatt, December 20, 2003, in home of Mischa Jucker, Basel, Switzerland

The Pancharakshas, from left, are Mahapratisara, Mahamantranusasrni, Mahasahasrapramardani, Mahishtavati, and Mahamayuri.

In the register below the chaitya and the attending deities are depicted the main scenes of the bhimaratha ritual. First the elders are ritually bathed with blessed waters sprinkled by their sons, assisted by the Vajracharya priest, dressed in white with a reddish shawl draped over his left and adorned with the crown characteristically worn by tantric officiants in the Nepalese Buddhist tradition (fig. 7). The celebrants then mount the chariot or palanquin (ratha-arohana) or a throne prepared for the occasion, thereby enacting their deification. They are now worshipped by their children and other kin, who pour water from a conch shell onto their feet (padargha) and bow to them with their foreheads. Having been worshipped in this manner, the elders are conveyed around town in carts (ratha) pulled by family members (fig. 8), just as deities are conveyed around town on the occasion of their annual chariot yatra. On the far left of the register, the family priest can be seen performing the fire ritual (yagnya) (fig. 9), in which complex tantric rituals are typically embedded in this tradition.

Two magnificently dressed couples, flanked by attendants, seated underneath canopies and deity portraits in mountain landscape
Fig. 7

Detail of Painted Scroll of Bhimaratha Ritual, showing ritual bath of the elders administered by their senior sons, assisted by the family priest; Hāku Bāhāḥ, Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription January 1830; private collection; photograph by Alexander von Rospatt, December 20, 2003, in home of Mischa Jucker, Basel, Switzerland

After having donned new clothes, including head gear, the elders mount the throne prepared for the occasion, so as to be venerated by family members. The priest oversees this rite while ringing a bell with his left hand and reciting incantations.

Golden carriage transports couple through crowd of onlookers and attendants in green mountain landscape
Fig. 8

Detail of Painted Scroll of Bhimaratha Ritual, showing the chariot (ratha) with the elders being towed by grandchildren and great-grandchildren; Hāku Bāhāḥ, Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription January 1830; private collection; photograph by Alexander von Rospatt, December 20, 2003, in home of Mischa Jucker, Basel, Switzerland

Priest in red garment at right casts white material into fire at center, with white-robed attendants at left
Fig. 9

Detail of Painted Scroll of Bhimaratha Ritual, showing fire ritual; Hāku Bāhāḥ, Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription January 1830; Private collection; photograph by Alexander von Rospatt, December 20, 2003, in home of Mischa Jucker, Basel, Switzerland

Assisted by the patrons of the ritual, the priest casts the offerings arrayed in front of him into the fire as offerings to the worshipped Buddhist deities.

Below these scenes of the bhimaratha ceremony, the family members sponsoring this ritual—that is, the sons and grandsons of the celebrants along with their wives, children, and grandchildren, separated according to gender—are depicted as worshipping a tantric (esoteric) deity, maybe a form of Heruka. The elders are not portrayed here because the ritual is performed for them, and hence they are not treated as sponsors who have instigated and sponsored its performance. Just as in the case of the plaque, at the very bottom a commemorative inscription records the date (January 20, 1830) and the names of the celebrated elders and their kin sponsoring the rite. In addition to the uncounted scroll paintings kept and worshipped by the Buddhists of Kathmandu in their homes, a considerable number of such scroll paintings, some of them magnificently executed, dating back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, survive in art collections around the world.

These icons are not just commemorative objects, but also play an important role in the ceremony they record. That is, alongside the sacralization of the elders they are consecrated in a complex series of tantric rituals so as to imbue them with the presence of Ushnishavijaya and of the other deities depicted. As consecrated icons, they are subsequently kept in a dedicated chamber in the home of the elders, who worship them daily (nitya puja) so as so to ensure longevity and ensure a good rebirth, ideally in , the heavenly realm of Buddha Amitabha, where they may proceed effortlessly on their path to Buddhahood.

Icons Commemorating Other Rituals

Such commemorative icons are characteristic of . Some also record public vow practices () dedicated to Vasudhara, and others record the performance of the so-called laksha chaitya ritual devoted to the production of one hundred thousand (laksha) miniature clay chaityas, resembling tsatsas in the Tibetan tradition. Collectively performed by a family or local community during the so-called month of virtue (Gunla), which coincides largely with July–August, participants gather each day in the early hours, fasting, to make clay chaityas one inch in height with the help of metal molds. In the process they consecrate the chaityas by inserting a rice grain (or grains) empowered by  recitation. Upon the conclusion of the month, all the clay chaityas thus produced are either inserted in the socle of a new chaitya erected at the time, or they are piled up on the riverbank in the shape of a chaitya and worshipped, and then consigned to the waters. Paintings commemorating this ritual typically display a chaitya in the style of Svayambhu with a socle replete with such clay chaityas. One exquisite example records the different steps in the production of the clay chaityas in vignettes distributed around the chaitya in the center, executed in the likeness of Svayambhu placed upon a base made of painted clay chaityas (fig. 10). The top register shows again the Svayambhu chaitya, here flanked by the white and red Lokeshvara of Kathmandu and Bungamati respectively.

Dusky painting depicting stupa structure against landscape and registers of scenes and deity portraits
Fig. 10. Painted Scroll of Laksha Chaitya Ritual; Kathmandu, Nepal; dated by inscription January 1808; opaque watercolor on cotton cloth; 38 × 24 in. (96.5 × 61 cm); Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection; B61 D10+; photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

The commemorative plaque and painted icons discussed here attest to the important role rituals and artworks play in Nepalese Buddhism. They also demonstrate how performances of complex rituals can become family affairs, bearing out how in this tradition the practice of Buddhism is a collective endeavor undertaken within society, rather than the quest for the liberation pursued by individual practitioners who have renounced their ties with society.

Footnotes
1

Alexander von Rospatt, “Negotiating the Passage beyond a Full Span of Life: Old Age Rituals among the Newars,” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 37, no. 1 (2014): 104–29.

2

This drawing (19¾ x 26¾ in., or 50.3 x 68 cm) of the Svayambhu chaitya, which records in all details its measurements after the completion of the extensive rebuilding in 1757, has been published as manuscript C in Bernhard Kölver, Re-Building a Stūpa: Architectural Drawings of the Svayaṃbhūnāth (Bonn: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag, 1992). See also Alexander von Rospatt, “The Past Renovations of the Svayambhūcaitya,” in Light of the Valley: Renewing the Sacred Art and Traditions of Svayambhu, ed. Tsering Palmo Gellek and Padma Dorje Maitland (Cazadero, CA: Dharma Publishing, 2011), 157–206.

3

See Hugo E. Kreijger, Kathmandu Valley Painting: The Jucker Collection (Boston: Shambhala, 1999), 82, no. 28.

4

Alexander von Rospatt, “Vajracharya Crowns and Diadems: Structure, Iconography, and Function,” in Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment, ed. John Henry Rice and Jeffrey S. Durham, Exhibition catalog (Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2019), 170–79.

5

See John Huntington and Dina Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, Exhibition catalog (Columbus, OH: Columbus Museum of Art, 2003), 116, cat. no. 20.

Further Reading

Huntington, John C., and Dina Bangdel. 2003. The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art. Exhibition catalog. Columbus, OH: Columbus Museum of Art; Chicago: Serindia.

Kreijger, Hugo E. 1999. Kathmandu Valley Painting: The Jucker Collection. Boston: Shambhala.

Rospatt, Alexander von. 2014b. “Negotiating the Passage beyond a Full Span of Life: Old Age Rituals among the Newars.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 37, no. 1, 104–29.

Citation

Alexander von Rospatt, “Plaque Commemorating the Bhimaratha Old Age Ritual: Icons Marking the Communal Performance of Buddhist Rituals,” Project Himalayan Art, Rubin Museum of Art, 2023, http://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/essays/plaque-commemorating-the-bhimaratha-old-age-ritual.

donor

In Buddhist context, donor is a person who contributes to or commissions a religious work of art. This act is intended to increase merit on behalf of the benefactor and is dedicated to the benefit of all. It is also usually done for a specific purpose, such as longevity, prosperity, or well-being; to advance religious practice; or to ensure a good rebirth of a deceased relative, teacher, or friend. A similar practice is also known in Hinduism and Bon.

iconography

In the Himalayan context, iconography refers to the forms found in religious images, especially the attributes of deities: body color, number of arms and legs, hand gestures, poses, implements, and retinue. Often these attributes are specified in ritual texts (sadhanas), which artists are expected to follow faithfully.

Newar

The Newars are traditional inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. The Newars speak a Tibeto-Burman language (Newari) and practice both Hinduism and Buddhism. The Newars are inheritors of one of the oldest and most sophisticated urban civilizations of the Himalayas, and Newar arts and artisans have been celebrated all across the Himalayan world since the Licchavi period.

stupa

Language:
Sanskrit
Alternate terms:
chaitya, chorten

Stupas are monuments that initially contained cremated remains of Buddha Shakyamuni or important monks, his disciples, and subsequently other material and symbolic relics associated with the Buddha’s body, teaching, and enlightened mind. As representations of the Buddha’s presence in the world, stupas with their contents—texts, relics, tsatsas—continue to be important objects of Buddhist worship in their diverse forms of domed structures, multistoried pagodas, and portable sculptures. The original form of stupas was an earthen dome-shaped mound containing the remains in reliquary vessels or urns deposited within the innermost core. The dome would often be successively enlarged and surrounded by a path for a walk around in a clockwise direction and veneration (circumambulation)

Ushnishavijaya

Language:
Sanskrit

In Mahayana Buddhism, Ushnishavijaya was the name of a particular dharani incantation popular across the Buddhist world. In the Vajrayana tradition, Ushnishavijaya became personified as a deity, usually depicted as a serene white six-armed female. Ushnishavijaya rituals are often performed as wishes for long-life, and the deity is one of the three deities of long-life, along with Amitayus and White Tara.

vrata

Language:
Sanskrit

In Hinduism, a vrata is a devotional ritual, often performed by women. Vratas typically involve making a vow of purity and fasting for a period. They can also include making a pilgrimage to a Hindu shrine, giving charitable donations, or other types of piety.

yatra

Language:
Sanskrit

In Hinduism, a yatra is a pilgrimage to a particular shrine or sacred place. Many important temples and pithas have a set date for a yearly mass-pilgrimage.

Bhimaratha

Language:
Sanskrit

Bhimaratha is a communal ceremony performed by the Newar people of the Kathmandu valley to celebrate the date when an elder turns seventy-seven years, seven months, and seven days old. During the ceremony, the elder and his or her spouse are pulled through the streets in a chariot by their children, whereby they are “deified” in the community. Artworks are often commissioned to commemorate the event.

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