The Kingdom of Nepal

The Nepalese people say that somewhere every day in the little Asiatic Kingdom of Nepal there is a festival, and the gods have provided them with a perfect setting.

The races and cultures of one region have blended with or become absorbed into the next, with those of the south heavily influenced by India, those of the north by Tibet, China and the plateaus of Central Asia, with a decided mingling of both in the middle regions.

To the Nepalese each peak is a goddess who protects the people and surrounding lands, where mythical treasures lie buried beneath massive white depths.

Their culture and dialects reveal a close affinity to Tibetans, and theirs is the Buddhist religion of Tibetan Lamaism.

For centuries Nepalese porters have trod the ancient trade routes, carrying on their backs heavy loads of salt, wool and grain from Tibet through high Himalayan passes over the hill trails to India, returning with rice, spices and cloth.

All along the low hills of the southern belt of Nepal tigers, leopards, rhinos and wild elephants roam magnificent forests and jungles, a land remembered as the hunting grounds of fabulous Maharajas with their court followers and caparisoned elephants of a few decades ago. Here, and through the flatlands at the border, the Nepalese people are in general indistinguishable from their dark Indian neighbours in appearance, dress, mode of living and Hindu religion.

Since remotest time the people of Nepal, as well as those of the surrounding lands, have clung to the animistic belief that all things have souls, that a multitude of good and bad spirits dwells everywhere – in stones, snakes, animals, trees, streams and mountains. A great deal of skill in the arts of magic and spells is required to avoid and cure disease, to make one’s body fertile, to protect against calamity, prolong life, destroy and harass enemies, and to avoid being possessed by evil spirits. Coupled with this animism, though perhaps not so ancient, is the practice of mother-worship and father-worship. Honour is paid to ancestors, and prayers are offered up for the welfare and propitiation of the souls of the recently dead.

These beliefs are still very much a part of religion in Nepal, absorbed and blended with the gods, rituals, ceremonies and festivals introduced by invaders, immigrants and pilgrims from neighboring  cultures, especially from the south.

About 1600 years before the birth of Christ, Aryan tribes from the north-west, probably from around the Caspian Sea, came into northern India as invaders and permanent settlers. These same tribes overran Europe and Persia. To the indigenous, subjugated people of India the Sryan conquerors brought their nature gods of sky, earth, wind, water, sex, sun, and fire. All these Vedic gods the people embraced in time, placed them side by side with their old native spirits and demons, worshiping and propitiating all together in rites and rituals still seen today in Nepalese ceremonies and festivals.

The Aryans, outnumbered by their subjects, whom they considered inferior, attempted to protect their radial identity by forbidding marriage outside their group, or inside, within a near degree of kinship. Thereby came the distant beginning of the Hindu caste system of religious and social barriers.

Gradually, as religion grew in importance and ritual complexity, expert intermediaries between men and the ever-increasing pantheon of gods and goddesses were required, which resulted in a hierarchy of Brahman priests organized to form the highest caste. For a time there was a struggle for ascendancy between the Brahmans and the noble warrior caste, but the latter finished in second place, leaving the Brahmans to increase in number and power until they held complete sway over the lives and religion of the multitudes.

Hinduism or Brahmanism lived on through waves of terrible persecution from overpowering conquerors, through the introduction of opposing faiths, heretics and dissenters, due largely to the patience, tenacity and foresightedness of the Brahman priesthood. Always tolerant of new thought and ready to make adjustments to suit the masses and the passing ages, but jealously reluctant to accept new custom, new forms of expression or changes in ritual, the Brahmans guided the Hindu religion down through the eras, still practicing the same rights and ceremonies  and festivals of the early believers.

An ancient Hindu text boasts that Hinduism has 300 million deities, an incredible figure only partially explained by the fact that each god is known in countless forms and under many names, each with different attributes and abilities. One god may appear in male, female or neuter form; human, animal or inanimate; and in aspects benevolent, kind and generous, or gain as bloodthirsty and ferocious. Hindu propitiate, worship and make offerings to this great array of gods in the hope of avoiding their displeasure, seeking their protection against misfortune and evil, imploring their beneficence in bestowing prosperity and happiness, and assistance in easing the way into life hereafter.

Learned Hindus are monotheistic, praying to and through the deities to reach the One Universal Spirit, the One Absolute Reality. They do not confuse God with the gods. The One supreme Being has manifested himself in the creation of three emanations – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva usually thought of as the Hindu triad.

Brahma is the Great Creator who formed the world and everything in it, including, it seems, the caste system wherein the highest caste of Brahman priests issued from Brahma’s head. The noble ruler-warrior caste came from his arm, while the merchants, traders and landowners came from his leg, and servants, menials and labourers came from his feet.

Vishnu the Preserver, protector of all that Brahma created, is greatly adored and widely worshipped by millions of devotees called Vishnavites, in all his many forms and incarnations, and by all his countless names. Through the long epochs of time Vishnu has presented himself nine times on earth on behalf of the gods and mankind, the last manifestation, some say, in the form of Lord Buddha himself. To the Nepalese, Vishnu is especially beloved in his manifestations as Krishna, Rama and Narayan.

Third in the Hindu triad is the Great Destroyer, Shiva, who represents Time, which eventually destroys and overcomes all things. To non-Hindu Shiva is a most complex divinity in that he also represents the force of procreation as the god of reproduction. All things male spring from Shiva, but he further embodies the female element, depicted as his various wives and female consorts. Shiva and wives are further multiplied in both kindly and terrifying aspects, their idols carved as serene and devoted lovers, or again as the most terrifying monsters, who can only be propitiated with the blood of sacrificed animals and intoxicating liquors.

One of the idols most commonly seen in Nepal is Shiva symbolized as the Shiva lingam, a vertical stone-carved pillar of simple oblong rock.

From the followers of the Shiva cult, Shivaites as they are called, has emanated the Shakti-Tantric school, where Shakti is the female Supreme Energy embodied in the Great Mother Goddesses, all of whom are deeply and widely revered in Nepal.

Both Hindus and Buddhists believe in transmigration of the soul when it leaves the earthly body. If during his lifetime a man has committed sin, his soul may be reincarnated as a stone, weasel or an untouchable person, to be born and reborn again and again through long ages of time at a level higher or lower, commensurate with the balancing of his good deeds against bad. If through his deeds he has gained sufficient merit, his soul may be reincarnated at a level as high as a Brahman. If he has lived the life of a saint, which is very unlikely, entirely without sin, his soul may be taken directly to the highest level of spiritual life where he will remain forever at rest in the presence of the Universal Spirit, in a state of heavenly bliss, never to be born on earth again. Thus he has gained Eternal Release, the ultimate goal.

Vital for all good Hindus and Buddhists is the accrual of religious merit during one’s time on earth to assure that life in the next world will be better. Toward this end offerings are made to the gods, especially on feast and festival days; alms are given to Brahmans, cripples and religious mendicants; ritual holy baths are taken, for one can become defiled through eating forbidden foods, coming in contact with offal, a corpse, an outcaste person or a menstruating woman; holy fasting and meditations are undergone; and the sacred cow is worshipped as representative of divinity.

Deity is honoured, worshipped, appeased or beseeched for some blessing with offerings of flowers, lighted wicks, holy water, rice, coloured sacred powders and pastes, coins, often fruits and vegetables, and sometimes liquor and blood sacrifices. In return the devotee receives Prasad, a gift of blessing, back from the god. This may be a coloured tika mark placed on his forehead by the temple priest or by his own hand, bits of the flower petals he has just offered placed atop his head, or the headless body of the animal or fowl he has just sacrificed.

At certain festivals jatras are performed , when the idol is decorated and carried about in gala religious procession for a variety of reasons- to honour him, give him a pleasurable outing, present him to other gods and goddesses, take him for this annual bathing ceremony, or simply to allow him the opportunity of watching some festival or ceremony with the celebrating populace.

He taught the value of ridding oneself of desire for meaningless earthly pleasures through learning, meditation, and a benevolent regard for the welfare of others, thereby attaining Nirvana – a state of superior spiritual peace.

Adherents believe that six different Buddhas lived on earth before Gautama.