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Abstract
In 2007, during the course of planning the 250th anniversary celebrations of the inauguration of the Kumari Chen—the house of the ‘Living Goddess’ in Kathmandu's Durbar Square—a new document came to light, which recorded significant alterations made to the building only four years after its foundation. This paper shows how these changes affected the Kumari Chen's identity, transforming it from a building originally designed for royal Hindu Tantric worship to a building with dual purpose, where separate Hindu and Buddhist Tantric worship could take place under the same roof. Taking into account the historical context in which the Kumari Chen was established, this paper explores the purpose for which the building was created by the last Malla king of Kathmandu and identifies motives for the subsequent alterations, shedding light on the relationship between Newar Buddhists and their Hindu king in a time of unprecedented crisis.
Notes
1 Sanskrit and Nepalese terms in this paper are given with the informal transcription preferred in the Nepalese media. Readers are referred to Michael Allen, The Cult of Kumari: Virgin Worship in Nepal (Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point, 1996), for diacritics.
2 Ibid., pp. 14–39; see also Bronwen Bledsoe, ‘An Advertised Secret: The Goddess Taleju and the King of Kathmandu’, in David Gordon White (ed.), Tantra in Practice (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), pp. 195–205.
3 The Kumari's throne is generally known as the simhasan after the golden lions (simha) that support it. The Kumari caretakers, however, refer to the throne as suvarna mayur asan (golden peacock seat) after the carved peacock depicted on the seat itself. The peacock is the vehicle of Kaumari, one of the Astamatrikas (eight protective mother goddesses), and is also represented around the sides of the Kumari's golden chariot.
4 Isabella Tree, Living Goddess, a Journey into the Heart of Kathmandu (New Delhi: Penguin India, 2014).
5 The Hindu royal priest performs nitya puja (daily worship) every morning in the presence of the Kumari in the audience chamber reserved principally for royal and state Kumari worship, the Golden Window of which overlooks Durbar Square. This chamber is generally known as the simhasan (Lion Throne Room) because it contains the Kumari's lion throne.
6 The Buddhist royal priest performs Buddhist nitya puja at around the same time in the morning as the nitya puja performed by the Hindu royal priest. His performance, however, takes place in the agam (the esoteric Buddhist shrine room) and activates the presence of the high Tantric Buddhist goddess, Vajravarahi, manifested by the Kumari. Contrary to popular belief, the agam is not above the kvahpah dyah (the ground floor shrine containing the Five Buddhas) on the south side of the courtyard, but on the first floor directly beneath the simhasan, as Durga Shakya, daughter of the principal Kumari caretaker, describes in her book, Hamro Sanskritima Devi Tulaja ra Kumariko Sthan (The Role of Goddess Tulaja and Kumari in Our Culture) (Kathmandu: Kumari Publications, 2010), pp. 139–46. An English-language translation is due to be published in 2014.
7 The Pancha Buddha are the five Vajracharyas who represent the five Transcendent Buddhas in Buddhist rituals at the Kumari Chen and elsewhere, such as at Swayambhu. They are selected from the eighteen bahals known as the mahaviharas (lit. great monasteries) in Kathmandu. They each belong to their own lineage bahal and are not tied exclusively to the Kumari Chen.
8 A second similar and highly significant manuscript, ‘Svayambhu Jirnoddhar Ghatanavali’ (‘A Chronicle of the Renovation of Swayambhu’), from the same collection, was shown to Professor Alexander von Rospatt in October 2008 by Manjushri Vajracharya and is referred to in Rospatt's essay, ‘The Past Renovations of the Svayambhucaitya’, in Tsering Palmo Gellek and Padma Dorje Maitland (eds), Light of the Valley: Renewing the Sacred Art and Traditions of Svayambhu (Cazadero, CA: Dharma Publishing, 2011), pp. 157–208. Both texts are untitled and have been microfilmed by the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (hereafter NGMPP).
9 The same date for the consecration of the Kumari Chen was given in another text, ‘Bhimsendeva Ghatanavali’ (‘A Chronology of the Events of the God Bhimsen’), also produced by Manjushri Vajracharya.
10 Interestingly, Iain Sinclair has identified a broader generic meaning for the term ‘baha(l)’ as an object of veneration which can be either Hindu or Buddhist (with ‘bahi(l)’ as a marker of location). Personal communication, 13 July 2013. In this paper, however, I use the word bahal with the narrower definition as understood by most Newars and specialists.
11 Janice M. Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics: An Iconographic Study of Kumari Baha Mandala in Kathmandu’, unpublished PhD dissertation, Ohio State University, 2002, [https://etd.ohiolink.edu, accessed 2 Nov. 2013], p. iii and passim.
12 John Locke, Buddhist Monasteries of Nepal (Kathmandu: Sahayogi Press, 1985), pp. 265–7.
13 Ibid., pp. 6, 267; and Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics’, p. 85.
14 Locke, Buddhist Monasteries of Nepal, p.6
15 This definition is from John C. Huntington and Dina Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss (Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2003), p. 530.
16 Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics’, pp. iii, 246–60.
17 Allen, The Cult of Kumari, pp. 18–9.
18 Joe Bindloss, Nepal (Melbourne: Lonely Planet Guides, 2009), p. 123.
19 Allen, The Cult of Kumari, pp. 14–6.
20 Nowadays, through force of circumstance, Patan's royal Kumari is Vajracharya, but, originally, she would have been from one of Hakha Bahal's Shakya lineages. See Locke, Buddhist Monasteries of Nepal, p.150.
21 Bikrama Jit Hasrat, History of Nepal: As Told by Its Own and Contemporary Chroniclers (Hoshiarpur, Punjab: V.V. Research Institute Press, 1970), pp. 59–60; D.B. Shrestha and C.B. Singh, The History of Ancient and Medieval Nepal (Kathmandu: HMG Press, 1972), p. 29; and N. Moaven, ‘Enquete sur les Kumari’, in Kailash, a Journal of Himalayan Studies, Vol. II, no. 3 (1974), p. 173.
22 Bhadraratna Vajracharya, Buddhist Monasteries of Bhaktapur (Bhaktapur: Maitreya Yuva Sangha, 2004), pp. 150–1.
23 For a biographical account of Suratvajra and his legendary exploits as a siddha, see Vijayaraj Vajracharya, ‘Lives and Works of the Siddha Vajracharyas of Nepal’ (in Hindi), in Dhih (Journal of Rare Buddhist Texts Research Project), Vol. 17, no. 4 (April 1994), pp. 133–4.
24 Daniel Wright, History of Nepal (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, [1877] rpr. 1993), p. 157.
25 Vajracharya, Buddhist Monasteries of Bhaktapur, p. 58.
26 Kashinath Tamot, ‘Surya Malla Mukunda Senyata Buketa Kumarisametyake Bal Phvamgu Abhilekh’ (‘Record of Surya Malla Begging Strength from the Kumari in Order to Defeat Mukunda Sen’), in Desaymaru Jhya, Vol.14, no. 20 (7 June 2007), p. 3.
27 Mary Shepherd Slusser, Nepal Mandala: A Cultural Study of the Kathmandu Valley (Nepal: Mandala Book Point, 1998), p. 312.
28 This text comes from four folios of a manuscript entitled ‘Kumari Avesa Devarcana Vidhi’ (‘The Method of Worship for Infusing Divinity into a New Kumari’), NGMPP, reel A 1222/28.
29 Wright, History of Nepal, p. 234. See also Locke, Buddhist Monasteries of Nepal, p. 151.
30 Allen, The Cult of Kumari, p. 43.
31 See the manuscript, ‘Kumari Prasada Dhvajavarohana Vidhi’ (‘The Ritual of Consecrating the Finial of the Kumari's House’), NGMPP, reel B 197/3.
32 Allen, The Cult of Kumari, pp. 56–7.
33 D.R. Regmi, Modern Nepal (New Delhi: Rupa & Co., 2007), pp. 139–46, 152–3; John Whelpton, A History of Nepal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 37; and Wright, History of Nepal, pp. 225–7.
34 Wright, History of Nepal, pp. 198, 250.
35 Hasrat, History of Nepal, pp. 86–8; and Wright, History of Nepal, pp. 223–4.
36 Allen, The Cult of Kumari, p. 21.
37 For the design of Newar temples, bahals, and other devotional structures as three-dimensional mandalas, see David L. Snellgrove, ‘Shrines and Temples of Nepal’, in Arts Asiatiques, Vol. VIII, no. 1 (1961), pp. 3–10, and Vol. VIII, no. 2 (1961), pp. 93–120; and Slusser, Nepal Mandala, pp. 142, 145–6.
38 Gautamavajra Vajracharya, Hanumandhoka Rajdarbar (Kathmandu: Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies, 1976), pp. 42–3.
39 Kashinath Tamot presented one further text to the meeting, giving the same date for the consecration of the Kumari Chen and installation of the Kumari. It mentions the attendance of ‘all the deities of the state of Kathmandu’ and ‘five Dipankars from Bhaktapur’, although ‘no deities attended from Patan’ (presumably because of the hostility of Rajya Prakash Malla, king of Patan, towards his brother Jaya Prakasha). See Janaklal Vaidya, ‘Notes on Events Dispersed in the Manuscripts of the National Archives’, in the annual periodical Kheluitah in Newari, no. 10 (1988), pp. 17–25.
40 AD date calculated by Diwakar Acharya, Kyoto University.
41 Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics’, p. 48.
42 Ibid., pp. 47, 284.
43 Ibid., p. iii.
44 As Glowski points out, a bahal typically ‘has two levels on three sides and three or five levels on the main shrine wall’. Ibid., p. 257.
45 Ex-Kumari Rashmila Shakya describes how she was affected by persistent fevers and crying spells during the time of the democracy demonstrations in 1990 and that these were only alleviated when King Birendra eventually lifted the ban on political parties and accepted the role of constitutional monarch. Rashmila Shakya, From Goddess to Mortal (Kathmandu: Vajra Publications, 2005), pp. 61–2.
46 Though it is generally accepted that the royal Kumari is chosen from the eighteen main bahals or mahaviharas of Kathmandu, in practice, she is selected from only the six or seven with Shakya lineages.
47 Personal communication between Durga Shakya and Kashinath Tamot, 8 July 2010. For a detailed description of the Kumari Chen, see Durga Shakya, The Role of Goddess Tulaja and Kumari in Our Culture, pp. 139–46.
48 See also Rama Sharma, ‘Kathmandaun Vasantapurasthita Jivita Kumaripujako Sanskritika evam Aitihasika Parampara’ (‘The Culture and Historical Transmission of the Kumari Worship Established at Basantapur, Kathmandu’), unpublished PhD thesis, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal, 2000; and J.B. Manandhar, ‘Murals of Kumari Ghar’, Gorkhapatra (21 Sept. 2002, Saturday Supplement) for descriptions of the paintings inside the simhasan.
49 Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics’, p. 196.
50 Robert Levy, Mesocosm: Hinduism and the Organization of a Traditional Newar City in Nepal (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992), pp. 487–8.
51 Allen, The Cult of Kumari, p. 84.
52 Niels Gutschow and Manabajra Bajracharya, ‘Ritual as Mediator of Space in Kathmandu’, in Journal of the Nepal Research Centre, Vol. 1 (1977), pp. 1–10.
53 Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics’, p. 192. Only one torana does not depict a goddess impaling a demon, and this is the newest one (possibly a poor copy) by the west portico.
54 Iconographic designs for Ugrachanda with listings of her attributes are published in M.L.B. Blom, Depicted Deities: Painters Model Books in Nepal (Groningen: Egbert Forsten Publishing, 1989), p. 41.
55 Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics’, pp. 175–82, and .15, p. 226.
56 Personal communication, 26 Oct. 2009.
57 Glowski is mistaken when she says that ‘the Kathmandu Kumari's immediate family establishes residence in Kumari Baha during the girl's tenure as the goddess’. Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics’, pp. 26, 90. For the circumstances of a Kumari's life at the Kumari Chen and the complex issue of returning to her parents after her dismissal, see Rashmila Shakya, From Goddess to Mortal, passim.
58 A ksama puja was conducted on 5 April 2007 in the simhasan at the Kumari Chen by the 250th Sri Kumari Anniversary Committee seeking the Kumari's approval and empowerment for the proposed celebrations.
59 From an introduction to Layku Bahil, given in a six-page leaflet distributed during Baha Puja at Layku Bahil, Layku Bahil: Mhasika (Laykubahi Vajracarya Khalah, VS 2053 Bhadra 1 [17 Aug. 1996]). See also Locke, Buddhist Monasteries of Nepal, p. 265.
60 Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics’, p. 86.
61 Personal communication, Prof. Mukunda Aryal, 4 Mar. 2003; and Glowski, ‘Protection, Power and Politics’, p. 257.
62 Gudrun Bühnemann, ‘Shivalingas and Chaityas in Representations of the Eight Cremation Grounds from Nepal’, in Ernst Steinkellner, Birgit Kellner et al. (eds), Pramanakirtih: Papers Dedicated to Ernst Steinkellner on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, Part 1 (Vienna: University of Vienna, 2007), pp. 23–35.
63 Wright, History of Nepal, pp. 226–7.
64 Regmi, Modern Nepal, p. 140.
65 Ibid., pp. 155–6.
66 S.J. Stiller, Prithwinarayan Shah in the Light of Dibya Upadesh (Ranchi: Catholic Press, 1968), pp. 40–1.
67 Vajracharya, Hanumandhoka Rajdarbar, pp. 42–3.
68 Narbada Shrestha et al., ‘Kumari Ghar’, unpublished research report by Nepal Research Group for the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Vikram Samvat 2064, p. 38.