Dharma and Puṇya: Buddhist Ritual Art of Nepal explores the centrality of ritual practices and the agency of people – patrons, ritual specialists, devotees – in creating and amplifying the efficacy of Buddhist art. Jinah Kim and Todd Lewis highlight the unparalleled contributions of Nepal’s artisans, patrons, and ritualists in engendering artistic heritage that is an endearing continuation of Indic Buddhist traditions. The publication presents paintings, illuminated texts, statues, and ritual implements from the Newar tradition in the Kathmandu Valley. Richly illustrated with photographs of contemporary rituals, religious observances, and historical examples, the essays provide cultural, historical and ritual contexts in which objects collected in art museums were used, and animate them. By recentering the historical imagination on communities, their rituals, and popular narrative traditions, Dharma and Puṇya challenges prevailing misconceptions about Buddhism in the West and expand our understanding of Buddhism as a lived world religion. Contributors include: Naresh Bajracharya, Louis Coppleston, Sonali Dhingra, James Giambrone, Jinah Kim, Todd Lewis, Bruce McCoy Owens, Alexander von Rospatt and Sumon Tuladhar.
Jinah Kim, Ph.D. (2006), UC Berkeley, is Gardner Colwes Professor of History of Art & Architecture at Harvard University. Her list of publications includes Receptacle of the Sacred: Illustrated Manuscripts and the Buddhist Book Cult in South Asia (2013).
Todd Lewis, Ph.D. (1984), Columbia University, is Distinguished Professor of Asian Religions at the College of the Holy Cross. He has published monographs, translations, textbooks, and studies of Newar Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley, including The Epic of the Buddha by Chittadhar Hridaya (2019).
Acknowledgements
Notes on Transliteration
1 Introduction Jinah Kim and Todd Lewis
Catalog Section
1 Vasudhārā Maṇḍala
Part I Foundations
2 Buddhism, Ritual, and the History of Buddhist Ritualism Todd Lewis
3 Overview of Newar Buddhism and Its Art: History and Community in the Kathmandu Valley Louis Copplestone
Part II Buddhist Rituals and Newar Tradition
4 Understanding Newar Buddhism through Ritual Todd Lewis
7 Performing Texts, Engendering Merits: Manuscripts and Paubhas as Ritual Objects Jinah Kim
Catalog Section
18 Folios and painted book covers from a Prajñāpāramitā manuscript
19 Four folios from a dispersed Gaṇḍavyūha sūtra manuscript
20 Three folios from a dispersed Gaṇḍavyūha sūtra manuscript
21 Pañcarakṣā manuscript
22 Dhāraṇī Saṅgraha manuscript
23 Pañcarakṣā manuscript
24 Pañcarakṣā manuscript
Part IV Kathmandu Valley Traditions in the Newar Context
8 Hindu-Buddhist Intersections in the Art of Nepal: Images of Avalokiteśvara Sonali Dhingra
Catalog Section
25 Kāraṇḍavyūha manuscript
26 Sukhāvatī Lokeśvara with Tārā
27 Wooden image of Indra
28 Kāla Bhairava
29 Bhairava mask
30 Buddhist sacred thread
31 Horoscope
32 Votive stūpa
9 The Tradition of Vajrācārya Storytellers Todd Lewis and Naresh Bajracharya
Catalog Section
33 Śākyamuni Buddha with avadānas and worshipping donors
34 Śākyamuni with scenes from the Kinnari Jātaka
10 On the Monumental Scroll of the Svayambhūpurāṇa Now Kept in the VMFA Collection Alexander von Rospatt
Catalog Section
35 Colossal bilampau of the Svayambhūpurāṇa
36 Illustrations from the Svayambhūpurāṇa
37 Five folios and painted wooden covers of a Prajñāpāramitā manuscript
38 Lakṣacaitya Vrata
Part V The Newar Artist
Catalog Section
39 Buddha Amitābha and Eight Bodhisattvas
11 Notes on the Contemporary Practices of the Newar Artisan Traditions James A. Giambrone
Catalog Section
40 Modern copies of a set of wooden struts and a blind window
Catalog Section of Some Contemporary Ritual Objects
41 Buddhist entry paintings
42 Pikha lakhu stone for preta off erings
43 Sun God and Navagraha ritual stone
44 Girl’s symbolic marriage maṇḍala
45 Uṣṇīṣavijayā caitya plaque for Burā/Buri Jaṃko ritual
46 Commissioned Vasundhārā Sand Maṇḍala template
47 Wooden Monastery gong (Gambhā Sim)
Part VI Appendices
Appendix I
Nepal: Period Overviews and the Time Line of the Kathmandu Valley History
Louis Copplestone
Appendix II
The Art of Newar Ritual Vessels, an Inventory of Specialized Objects and Offerings
Sumon Kamal Tuladhar and Todd Lewis
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Photo Credits
Lenders
Index
Anyone interested in Himalayan art, Nepal, Buddhist Art, ritual and anthropology of religion, educated public (intro courses on Buddhism and Buddhist art), specialists (art history, Buddhist studies).