Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This article deals with a ritual called “Lakṣacaitya” (literally “hundred thousand caityas”) performed by Newar Buddhists of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, during which a very large number of miniature caityas or stupas are made. Besides the interest of the ritual procedures as part of annual or occasional religious observances (Skt. vrata), the performance of the Lakṣacaitya ritual has been, for some devotees, the occasion to commission a scroll painting on cotton cloth (New. paubhā) commemorating its completion. In the Nepalese world, few religious practices have been the subject of such depictions. These paintings not only attest to the antiquity of this Buddhist practice in Nepal, but also constitute unique visual materials, especially regarding the paubhās of the 18th and 19th centuries, of which there is no equivalent in Indian or Tibetan Buddhist art.
DOI: 10.4000/126lu
Author: Kunsang Namgyal-Lama
Language: English
Topic: Indian and Buddhist Studies
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4403271573