Editing Nepal (section)

== Buddhism in Nepal ==

=== Newar Buddhism and the Hindu State ===

Buddhism has a long history in the territory of present-day Nepal, and the Kathmandu Valley is home to a Sanskrit Mahayana and Vajrayana tradition that the Newars have practiced without interruption.<ref name="Ober2023">Ober, Douglas (2023). ''Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India''. Stanford University Press, pp. 25–26.</ref> The Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts that the British Resident Brian Hodgson collected in Kathmandu in the nineteenth century became a foundation of European Buddhist scholarship. According to Bechert and Hartmann, probably in the thirteenth or fourteenth century the monastic community of Newar Buddhism was transformed into a caste community: hereditary Vajracharya and Shakya (Shakyabhikshu) households, whose male members are initiated as boys and live as married householders, form the "Sangha," while other Buddhist castes, such as the Tuladhars and Manandhars, are excluded from these monastic communities.<ref name="BH1988">Bechert, Heinz, & Jens-Uwe Hartmann (1988). "Observations on the Reform of Buddhism in Nepal". ''Journal of the Nepal Research Centre'' 8: 1–30, pp. 2–4.</ref> They describe a "spiritual crisis" of Newar Buddhism, in which there is no living doctrinal tradition, the rituals are expensive, and the caste exclusivity is one that the Vajracharyas cannot justify rationally.<ref>Bechert and Hartmann (1988), "Observations on the Reform of Buddhism in Nepal", p. 4.</ref> Newar Buddhism is still described as fully embedded in a traditional caste system.<ref name="LeVine2005">LeVine, Sarah, & David N. Gellner (2005). ''Rebuilding Buddhism: The Theravada Movement in Twentieth-Century Nepal''. Harvard University Press, p. 262.</ref>

The Rana prime ministers, who ruled from 1846 to 1951, sided with Hindu orthodoxy. In a dispute among Newar Buddhists over the food offerings of a [[Tibet]]an lama, the Rana state upheld the orthodox Hindu rules and imprisoned two Vajracharyas in 1932, which pushed some Newar Buddhists toward Tibetan and Theravada alternatives.<ref>LeVine and Gellner (2005), ''Rebuilding Buddhism'', pp. 39–40, citing Rosser (1966), p. 110 (as reported by LeVine and Gellner).</ref> Buddhism was tolerated as a sub-sect of Hinduism, with the Buddha treated as an avatar of Vishnu.<ref name="Letizia2014">Letizia, Chiara (2014). "Buddhist Activism, New Sanghas, and the Politics of Belonging among Some Tharu and Magar Communities of Southern Nepal". In: Toffin, Gérard, & Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka (Eds.), ''Facing Globalization in the Himalayas'': 286–322. Sage, pp. 287, 292 and nn. 22–24.</ref> Conversion from Hinduism, including to Buddhism, was banned: Letizia, following Gaborieau, dates the ban to the Rana-era civil code of 1935, and it survived in later law, including the 1990 Constitution and the 2007 Interim Constitution.<ref>Letizia (2014), "Buddhist Activism, New Sanghas, and the Politics of Belonging", p. 292, nn. 22–23, citing Gaborieau (1994), p. 63. For the ban under the Rana regime, see also Bechert and Hartmann (1988), "Observations on the Reform of Buddhism in Nepal", pp. 5–6.</ref> Buddhism's cultural presence outside the Kathmandu Valley is carried largely by ethnic identity: Tibetan-influenced groups such as the Hyolmo, Sherpa, and Tamang are Buddhist, and educated Tibetan Buddhists settled in the valley in numbers only after 1959.<ref>Torri, Davide (2019). "Religious Identities and the Struggle for Secularism: The Revival of Buddhism and Religions of Marginalized Groups in Nepal". ''Entangled Religions'' 8. DOI: 10.13154/er.8.2019.8355, para. [4]; Bechert and Hartmann (1988), "Observations on the Reform of Buddhism in Nepal", p. 5.</ref>

=== The Theravada Revival ===

In the 1920s a reform movement inspired by Theravada Buddhism emerged among the Newars. It began largely outside Nepal: Newar merchants and students in Calcutta met missionaries of the [[Maha Bodhi Society]], and the first Nepalese Theravada monks were ordained in India.<ref>LeVine and Gellner (2005), ''Rebuilding Buddhism'', pp. 26–27.</ref> Dharmaditya Dharmacharya (Jagatman Vaidya, 1902–1963) met Anagarika Dharmapala in Calcutta, and after returning to Nepal in 1923 founded the Nepal Buddhopasak Sangha, a lay association, and three weeks later a women's counterpart; Chudal describes the Newari-language translations that he sent to Dharmapala's Calcutta journal as the first periodical in that language.<ref name="Chudal2015">Chudal, Alaka Atreya (2015). "Rahul Sankrityayan and the Buddhism of Nepal". ''European Bulletin of Himalayan Research'' 46: 62–87, pp. 72–73. LeVine and Gellner (2005), ''Rebuilding Buddhism'', p. 28, date the journal to 1925.</ref> The movement translated Buddhist texts into Newari and Nepali, gave laypeople access to teaching and meditation, and ordained novices, monks, and, in a development without precedent in the Theravada world, nuns.<ref>Bechert and Hartmann (1988), "Observations on the Reform of Buddhism in Nepal", pp. 15–19, 24–26.</ref> Its leading figures included Amritananda (Mahanayaka Thera), who kept a high public profile through his friendship with King Tribhuvan, and U Chandramani, the Arakanese-born monk of Kusinagar (see below).<ref>Kloppenborg, Ria (1977). "Theravada Buddhism in Nepal". ''Kailash'' 5(4): 301–321, pp. 305–306; LeVine and Gellner (2005), ''Rebuilding Buddhism'', pp. 43–44, 280.</ref> Its central institution, the Dharmodaya Sabha (Council for the Advancement of the Dharma), was founded in Sarnath on 30 November 1944, with Chandramani as president and Amritananda as general secretary.<ref>Kloppenborg (1977), "Theravada Buddhism in Nepal", p. 306; LeVine and Gellner (2005), ''Rebuilding Buddhism'', p. 48.</ref> The Rana state suppressed the movement and expelled its monks, as described [[#Dissent and Reform under the Rana State|below]].

=== Buddhism Since 1951 ===

After the overthrow of the Rana regime in 1950–51, the legal climate changed. King Tribhuvan took part in a Buddha-puja on Vesak in 1951, breaking with a tradition that had forbidden the Gurkha rulers to worship the Buddha, the Dharmodaya Sabha moved to Nepal, and an All-Nepal Bhikshu Mahasangha was formed with Amritananda as president; Buddha Jayanti became a national holiday.<ref>LeVine and Gellner (2005), ''Rebuilding Buddhism'', pp. 56, 58.</ref> The Sabha's activity then declined quickly after the mid-1950s, having exhausted its resources, and did not revive until 1984.<ref>Kloppenborg (1977), "Theravada Buddhism in Nepal", pp. 309, 311, 316; Bechert and Hartmann (1988), "Observations on the Reform of Buddhism in Nepal", pp. 13–14.</ref> In the mid-1980s Bechert and Hartmann counted about forty-two fully ordained monks and some sixty anagarikas, and they noted a degree of significance for nuns that had no precedent in the Theravada world.<ref>Bechert and Hartmann (1988), "Observations on the Reform of Buddhism in Nepal", pp. 24–26.</ref> Nepal remained a Hindu kingdom until the proclamation of a secular state in May 2006, and in the 2021 census about 8.2 percent of the population (some 2.4 million people) was counted as Buddhist, down from 9 percent in 2011. Census figures have been contested: Bechert and Hartmann called the 1981 figure of 5.3 percent very doubtful, and activists campaigned to be counted as Buddhist in 2001 (see below).<ref>Bechert and Hartmann (1988), "Observations on the Reform of Buddhism in Nepal", p. 1; Letizia (2014), "Buddhist Activism, New Sanghas, and the Politics of Belonging", pp. 297–300 and nn. 37–38.</ref> Questions of ownership and identity also surround Lumbini itself: according to Ober, many Nepalis object to claims that the Buddha was "Indian" rather than Nepali.<ref>Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', p. 27.</ref>