Buddhist Daily Ritual: The Nitya Puja in Kathmandu Valley Shrines

This text presents findings of reseearch on a particular form of Buddhist ritual practised by Sakyas and Vajracaryas, the inheritors of the monastic tradition and the highest Buddhist castes among the Newars, the indigenous people of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The author presents an authentic record of a unique form of Buddhist devotionalism and ritual: the everyday practices of the Newar Buddhists, the sole remnant of South Asia’s once extensive Mahayana community. Specifically, the exoteric liturgies performed each day at the main shrines of bahahs and bahis (as traditional Newar Buddhist viharas are known) are described, and the relationship of these rites to other elements of Newar Buddhist practice are analyzed, in order to shed light on connections between the latter and Buddhist practices elsewhere.