Abstract
Research in the Newar Buddhist traditions of the Kathmandu Valley over the past fifty years has shown that the display of a few long banner paintings is the survival of a premodern tradition, a significant part of the holy month of Guṃlā (during the monsoon season). Recent systematic inquiries into the museum holdings of Newar paintings in major museum collections of Nepalese art in the United States and Europe has revealed that this genre of display painting (Newari: bilam pau) dates back at least to the early Malla period (1500ce) and had a very large diversity of content. Most have long panels of paintings (up to 30’) in a chronological series (usually) that illustrate stories that are popular and that have been localized in the regional Buddhist tradition. Of special significance is the practice of painter/scribes adding descriptions of each scene in the vernacular language. This combination of text and image provides an invaluable witness to the actual content of doctrinal tradition that connected the elite Buddhist masters (Vajrācārya textualists/story tellers and Citrakār painters) to the great majority of householders. The vernacular content, in a sense “frozen” on the bilam pau, provides a solution to the persistent question of which teachings in the texts in the monastic libraries (readable only by a small premodern minority) were disseminated to the wider society. The paper surveys research to date, provides examples of this genre, and points to evidence that this Newar tradition had precedents in other parts of the Buddhist world.
Presenters
Todd LewisProfessor, Religious Studies, College of The Holy Cross, Massachusetts, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Painting, Vernacular text, Buddhism, Nepal, Kathmandu Valley, Newar Tradition, Narratives
