THE UNIQUE FEATURES OF NEWAR BUDDHISMhouse on the outskirts of the city. Others find that there is simply not room
enough in the vihiira for their growing family, and either buy or rent quarters
wherever available in the city. This migration is breaking up the old communit-
ies. Whereas in former times all members of the sangha lived in the vihiira and
thus shared in the daily round of ritual, the monthly and yearly observances and
the local festivals, they now return to their vihiira only for the annual festival or
the worship of the lineage deity. In some cases they return only for the all-
important initiation of their sons. The round of ritual and the stories told during
the rituals served as the catechesis of the young-the vehicle by which the tradi-
tions of the community, its values and obligations were passed on to the young.
This has been lost. Even for the young who still live in the vihiira there are more
alluring attractions than watching rituals - Hindi films, videos, or a stroll with
their friends down New Road. This pattern is most obvious in Kathmandu, but
in ten years' time the situation in Patan will be identical.
It is also the Sakyas and Vajracaryas, and more so the wealthy trading class
among the Buddhists of Kathmandu, who have taken the greatest advantage of
the availability of modem education. This has had two effects. Vajracaryas who
have the education go into the professions or into government service, with the
result that the young Vajracaryas who are left to carry on the tradition are the
least educated members of the community. The better educated Buddhists who
want to preserve their Buddhist traditions then have no one within their own tra-
dition to tum to for an exposition of Buddhism commensurate with their own
education.
Many sincere Buddhists within the community are acutely aware of the crisis
this has provoked. Groups have been formed and efforts are being made to
spread the Dharma through books, seminars, singing groups, etc., but one
wonders if a renewal of traditional Mahayana Buddhism is possible without an
educated and celibate sangha. A true revival, however, is taking place, but it is a
Theravada revival: another matter.
Notes
Not all scholars agree in identifying the Licchavis of Nepal with those of Vaisall
known from Indian History and the Buddhist records. The name is unusual, and all
we really have is a common name. What is clear is that the Licchavis of Nepal came
from the plains as they were very clearly caste Hindus with a highly developed San-
skrit culture.
2 D. L. Snellgrove, "Appendix" in Etienne Lamotte, Towards the Meeting with Bud-
dhism, Rome 1970, 129-30.
3 The etymology of this word is clear from the Malia period inscriptions where the San-
skrit term and the derivatives viihiira/biihiiralbiihiil are interchanged, often within the
same inscription. See Locke, Buddhist Monasteries of Nepal, Kathmandu: forthcom-
ing, 479, n. 1.
4 This custom of protective deities goes back to ancient times. 1-Tsing, who travelled
through India in the latter part of the seventh century, reports that it was common to
find an image ofMahakala near the door or in the kitchen of the great Indian vihiiras.