The Mahayana – Vajrayana Tradition of the Newars of Nepal : Practices, Concepts and Conflicts

Description

Anyone who wants to know what Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley is all about and wants to hear it from the mouth of a Newar Buddhist will need to read this book. Juhee Gubhani’s study of the Mahayana-Vajrayana and, one should add, Theravada Buddhism of the Newars is a monumental achievement and a new milestone in the study of South Asian religions. It is the most detailed, comprehensive, and important work on Newar Buddhism since the publication of David N. Gellner’s foundational Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest more than three decades ago, and it is safe to say that Juhee Gubhani’s book will become and remain a reference for our field for the next foreseeable future. The book is a testimony to the importance Nepalese Buddhism has as a historical link between South and Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and East Asian Buddhism and to the vibrancy of Newar Studies as a key field in the study of the Himalayas and of Asia more broadly. Juhee Gubhani’s book brings with it all the strengths of an author who explicitly positions herself as a Buddhist, a Newar, an academic, a woman, and as a member of the community of tantric priestly families closely affiliated with the monasteries of the Kathmandu Valley. The author has succeeded in writing a monograph that covers all aspects of the religious life, thought, and history of the Buddhist Newars, explains these from within the tradition, and unifies them through her very contemporary vision of Buddhism. The book is a most impressive piece of engaged and constructive Buddhist scholarship by a Buddhist about both a very ancient and contemporary, unique form of Buddhism, whose present and future the author intensely cares about as a scholar, a public intellectual, and as a committed Buddhist. That Juhee Gubhani’s own vision of Buddhism is given as much space as the conversations, agreements, and disagreements among her interlocutors speaks of the diversity, argumentativeness, and inventiveness of the Newars, the intellectual generosity of the author, and the transformative power of a tradition which, while representing one of the oldest forms of Buddhism existing today, is just as rich, lively, relevant, and engaging as readers will find this extraordinary book to be.

Christoph Emmrich,
Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Toronto