Carrying Out Acts of Service in the Buddhist Community

Ryan Damron
Group at left faces larger than life-size figure and attendants at right against rust-red background

Paubha Commemorating the Death of Pandita Vanaratna (1384–1468); Patan, Nepal; 1469; mineral pigments on cotton cloth; 27¼ × 39¼ in (69.4 × 99.7 cm); Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Associates Purchase; M.77.19.3; photograph © Museum Associates/LACMA, www.lacma.org

Nepalese Paubha Commemorating the Death of Pandita Vanaratna

Gopicandra Monastery, Patan, Nepal 1469

Paubha Commemorating the Death of Pandita Vanaratna (1384–1468); Patan, Nepal; 1469; mineral pigments on cotton cloth; 27¼ × 39¼ in (69.4 × 99.7 cm); Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Associates Purchase; M.77.19.3; photograph © Museum Associates/LACMA, www.lacma.org

Summary

Buddhist studies scholar Ryan Damron investigates a Nepalese painting that commemorates the Buddhist monk Vanaratna but features an enigmatic woman. Is she wife, goddess, benefactress? Born when Buddhism was dying in its north-Indian homeland, Vanaratna ordained on the Burmese border, studied in Sri Lanka, taught in Tibet, and became an abbot known for his charitable practices in Patan. The author suggests this incomplete fragment of the scene and the unidentified woman,may relate to Vanaratna’s community work in Nepal.

Key Terms

monastery

A monastery is a place where monks live, study, and perform ritual. It includes temples and other structures. Monasteries are central to Buddhism, and are also important in Bon, Hinduism, and Daoism. In Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian areas, some monasteries are enormous, wealthy, and powerful institutions, with branches of satellite monasteries forming networks across regions, often with thousands of monks, many decorated chapels, and huge holdings of land. Other monasteries, called hermitages, can be extremely simple, little more than a cave where hermits meditate. Generally, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery will have an assembly hall, several temples (Tib. lhakhang) for worship of specific deities, a protector chapel, as well as monks’ accommodations. A related institution in Newar Buddhism are the baha and bahi.

Newar Buddhism

The Newar People of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal retain the unbroken traditions of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism south of the Himalayas, preserving many ritual practices and Sanskrit-language texts that have been lost elsewhere. Celibate monasticism is no longer practiced among the Newars, but instead Buddhist ritualists are divided into two castes. One is the Shakyas, temple-priests who maintain ancient urban monasteries (Newar: bahas, bahis) as places of worship. The other is the Vajracharyas, tantric specialists who perform rituals at communal festivals and important life events. The Svayambhu Stupa is the most important ritual center for Newar Buddhists and the center of the Kathmandu Mandala. Today many Newars also practice Theravada and Tibetan Buddhism.

Pandita

Pandita is an honorary title for a highly learned Buddhist scholar. Tibetans reserve this title for great scholars who were also teachers, for instance Sakya Pandita or the Panchen (“Great Pandita”) Lama tulku lineage.

patronage

A practice of hiring and commissioning artists to create works of art. In religious context patrons were often rulers, religious leaders, as well as ordinary people. (see also donor)

Tara

Tara is an important deity in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Sometimes considered an emanation or consort of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Tara is known as a savioress who rescues those in peril. Tara has many different peaceful and wrathful forms, but she is often depicted as either green or white. The green form is associated with her limitless activity, and white with granting a long life. The green and white Taras are also associated with, respectively, the Nepalese princess Bhrikuti and the Chinese princess Wencheng, semi-legendary wives of the Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo (d. 649 CE), himself said to be an emanation of Avalokiteshvara. In one popular story Tara is said to have vowed to always appear in female form.

Vajracharya

In Vajrayana Buddhism, a Vajracharya is a general term of respect for a teacher or tantric master who gives teachings and abhisheka initiations. In Newar Buddhism, Vajracharya is a specific caste of non-celibate ritual professionals, who make a living performing tantric rituals on behalf of members of the community.

In 1469 master artisans of the Kathmandu Valley put pigment to cloth to commemorate the life and passing of the Indian Buddhist monk, scholar (), and teacher Vanaratna (1384–1468). The cloth painting (), a masterful early example of  painting in the medieval  period (ca. 1385–1769), was likely commissioned by the community of Gopichandra , Vanaratna’s seat in the city of Patan, shortly after his passing. The paubha bears a Newari inscription describing two large-scale alms distributions Vanaratna performed at Gopichandra, and provides us with the date and year of his passing. The main image presents a vibrant and detailed scene of one of these alms distributions, but instead of depicting Vanaratna, it features a large female figure flanked by two smaller women handing out alms to a diverse crowd of alms seekers. The inscription does not provide the names of the artists, but it bears clear stylistic similarities with another masterwork of fifteenth-century Newar artistry, a portrait of Gaganasim Bharo of Dolakha and his wives Ashayani and Jivatana. These similarities strongly suggest that the paubha commemorating Vanaratna’s passing was made by Adyayaraja Puna and Udrayarama Puna of Kathmandu, or in the atelier in which they worked. The two artists made a number of important innovations in Newar art and specifically portraiture, some of which—including the depiction of the female form and the prominence given to human figures in relation to the divine—are evident in the unattributed paubha commissioned by the Gopichandra community.

The Pandita Vanaratna

The painting is of great significance both as a work of high Newar art and for the historical data it offers us on its subject, the Buddhist master Vanaratna (fig. 2). Born in 1384 in the town of  near what is now the border of Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma), Vanaratna received his early training at the local Mahachaitya monastery. After completing his studies and taking full ordination, he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he spent six years studying at the island’s leading Buddhist institutions. He then returned to India, first studying in the  River valley before proceeding to the ancient heartland of the Buddhist world, Bodhgaya. Vanaratna remained there for six years, but the attenuation of the Buddhist community and the derelict condition of its once-great monuments left him dissatisfied, compelling him to leave India for the Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Tibet and their thriving Buddhist communities. He arrived in the Kathmandu Valley in 1423, and spent the remainder of his life traveling between Nepal and Tibet, becoming a teacher celebrated by the leading Newar and Tibetan Buddhist figures of the day and patronized by royal courts on both sides of the Himalayas. In roughly 1438, Vanaratna was given Gopichandra Monastery in Patan, known in Newari as Pintu Bahi (fig. 3), which became his home and spiritual seat. He died in his private chambers at Gopichandra in 1468.

The Inscription and Image

In the upper-left corner of the painting, a Newari inscription records three important events in Vanaratna’s later years at Gopichandra: his large alms distribution in 1455, a similar rite in 1467, and the date and year of his death. The food distributions are described in detail, including the diverse assembly of supplicants and the varieties of offerings made. These details are corroborated with remarkable consistency in the biography of Vanaratna composed by his Tibetan disciple and colleague Sonam Gyatso (1424–1482), who also confirms the date of Vanaratna’s passing recorded in the inscription: midnight on Monday, the seventh day of the dark fortnight in the month of Margashirsha (November–December) in Nepala Samvat 589 (1468).

The image depicts an alms distribution at Gopichandra, though the inscription does not clarify if it is related to one of the events recorded there or a later distribution led by the Gopichandra community. The left half of the image is arrayed with a diverse group of supplicants approaching three women dispensing alms. The inscription, the details of the painting, and textual sources all concur that the crowd included Buddhist monastics, non-Buddhist mendicants, and lay people, among whom were musicians and beggars. The right half of the image is taken up by a large portrait of a woman distributing alms with her right hand and holding a lotus elegantly in her left. She is flanked by two women who, like the central figure, are dressed in fine garments. Four seated figures adorn the upper-right corner of the image, and though they are not identified by name, their position suggests them to be the patrons of the image or prominent members of the Gopichandra community. Interspersed between the figures are various flowers and ritual utensils that add to the festive imagery. The entire image is surrounded by a decorative border and sewn into a brocade frame. The painting is faded, worn, and incomplete, and its inscription is nearly illegible; however, a copy of the image commissioned by the Gopichandra community in 1862 clarifies many of the details of the original image, provides a more legible reading of the inscription, and demonstrates that the 1469 painting is likely missing an upper register that contained an image of an unidentified buddha surrounded by monastics and flanked by Buddhist adepts and other buddhas (fig. 4). That this upper register was included in the original image is suggested by traces of ornamental features still evident at the top of the original painting.

The identity of the large female figure is a matter of some debate that has been the primary focus of previous scholarship on this image. Some propose that the main figure is Vanaratna’s widow distributing alms, and cite Vanaratna’s biographies to argue that Vanaratna abandoned his monastic status and took a wife while living in Kathmandu, a custom common among Newar Vajracharyas in more recent times. This reading of Vanaratna’s biography is inaccurate and incomplete, however, as it ignores substantial evidence that Vanaratna placed great importance on his monastic ordination, even if he did rely on a consort in specific esoteric ritual contexts.

A more plausible, but ultimately unsatisfying argument is made by Dina Bangdel, who asserts that the main female figure is the white form of the female . Her argument is based on the figure’s  and prominence, other minor details from the image, and proposed connections between Vanaratna and Tibetan lineages of White Tara practice. The textual and lineage connections Bangdel proposes are tenuous, however, as the sources she cites date four centuries after Vanaratna’s passing and cannot be directly linked with Vanaratna’s biography or extant writings. There is also little evidence to suggest White Tara was of specific relevance to either Vanaratna or the Gopichandra community. The key iconographic features and details that in Bangdel’s argument identify the figure as Tara—specifically the figure’s hand gestures and the ritual objects arrayed throughout the image—are in fact stylistic motifs also used in the previously mentioned secular portrait of Gaganasim Bharo and his wives, a portrait likely made by the same artists or in the same artist collective. While the prominence of the female figure in the image and the fact that she holds a lotus lends some support to Bangdel’s claim, the evidence is insufficient to identify her as Tara.

While her scale and placement suggest she is someone of importance, it is notable that the woman is not mentioned in the inscription. It is also notable that Vanaratna himself is not pictured, despite the fact that his is the only name provided in the inscription that exclusively describes his activities at Gopichandra Monastery. If, as the 1862 copy of the image indicates, the alms distribution scene is in the lower frame of what was originally a two-frame image, then the painting discussed here would be subordinate to the missing image of a buddha above. It is therefore perhaps not intended to be the primary focal point of the painting.

If we leave the mystery of the woman’s identity unsolved, a different interpretation comes into focus: the image is not meant to depict a specific individual, but rather represents the Gopichandra community as a whole. As we know from his biography, Vanaratna used the gold he amassed throughout his career to establish a food bank at Gopichandra that continued to serve the people of the Kathmandu Valley long after he passed away. The anonymity of the main figures focuses our attention not on an individual, but on the community carrying out the acts of service instigated and inspired by their spiritual leader. Thus, as this exceptional image attests, it was a dynamic depiction of the community, rather than a formal portrait of Vanaratna, that was selected to memorialize his passing and serve as a remembrance for the vital community he left behind.

Footnotes
1

This painting is reproduced in Pratapaditya Pal, ed., Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure, Exhibition catalog (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago in association with University of California Press and Mapin Publications, 2003), 68–69. 

2

On the exceptional painting of Gaganasim Bharo and his wives and its stylistic similarities with the paubha discussed here, see Gautama V. Vajracharya, “Threefold Intimacy: The Recent Discovery of an Outstanding Nepalese Portrait Painting,” Orientations 34, no. 4 (April) (2003): 40–45.

3

For more on the innovations introduced by Adyayaraja Puna and Udrayarama Puna, see Gautama V. Vajracharya, “Threefold Intimacy: The Recent Discovery of an Outstanding Nepalese Portrait Painting,” Orientations 34, no. 4 (April) (2003): 42–45.

4

Vanaratna’s life story is preserved in two Tibetan biographies (namtar) composed by his close disciples, often with his direct input. Zhonnu Pel (gzhon nu dpal, 1392–1481) covers the years 1384–ca. 1438. Sonam Gyatso (bsod nams rgya mtsho, 1424–1482) covers the years ca. 1438–1468. For a study of the two biographies, Vanaratna’s extant writings, and related art historical and material resources, see Ryan C. Damron, “Deyadharma—A Gift of the Dharma: The Life and Works of Vanaratna (1384–1468)” (PhD diss., Berkeley, University of California, 2021).  

5

On this argument, see Pratapaditya Pal, Art of Nepal: A Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection (Berkeley: Los Angeles County Museum of Art in association with University of California Press, 1985); Pratapaditya Pal, “The Last Buddhist Pundit of Bengal,” in Studies in Art and Archaeology of Bihar and Bengal, ed. Debala Mitra and Gouriswar Bhattacharya (Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1989), 189–97, 194–95; Hubert Decleer, “Review of Sacred Visions: Early Paintings from Central Tibet by Steven M. Kosssak and Jane Casey Singer,” Tibet Journal 30, no. 1 (Spring 2005): (2005):  87; Gautama V. Vajracharya, “Crown Jewel of Newar Painting: Discovery of a Masterpiece,” in Nepal: Old Images, New Insights. Pal, Pratapaditya, ed. Pal Pratapaditya (Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2004), 69.

6

David N. Gellner, Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and Its Hierarchy of Ritual (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 162–7.

7

John Huntington and Dina Bangdel, The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art, Exhibition catalog (Columbus, OH: Columbus Museum of Art, 2003), 143–45.

8

For a more detailed discussion of Pal’s and Bangdel’s arguments, see Ryan C. Damron, “Deyadharma—A Gift of the Dharma: The Life and Works of Vanaratna (1384–1468)” (PhD diss., Berkeley, University of California, 2021), 94–97, 237–40.

Further Reading

Damron, Ryan C. 2021. “Deyadharma—A Gift of the Dharma: The Life and Works of Vanaratna (1384–1468).” PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley.

Pal, Pratapaditya. 1985. Art of Nepal: A Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art and University of California Press.

Vajracharya, Gautama V. 2003. “Threefold Intimacy: The Recent Discovery of an Outstanding Nepalese Portrait Painting.” Orientations 34, no. (April): 40–45.

Citation

Ryan Damron, “Nepalese Paubha Commemorating the Death of Pandita Vanaratna: Carrying Out Acts of Service in the Buddhist Community,” Project Himalayan Art, Rubin Museum of Art, 2023, http://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/essays/nepalese-paubha-commemorating-the-death-of-pandita-vanaratna.

monastery

Alternate terms:
vihara, bahi, baha

A monastery is a place where monks live, study, and perform ritual. It includes temples and other structures. Monasteries are central to Buddhism, and are also important in Bon, Hinduism, and Daoism. In Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian areas, some monasteries are enormous, wealthy, and powerful institutions, with branches of satellite monasteries forming networks across regions, often with thousands of monks, many decorated chapels, and huge holdings of land. Other monasteries, called hermitages, can be extremely simple, little more than a cave where hermits meditate. Generally, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery will have an assembly hall, several temples (Tib. lhakhang) for worship of specific deities, a protector chapel, as well as monks’ accommodations. A related institution in Newar Buddhism are the baha and bahi.

Newar Buddhism

The Newar People of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal retain the unbroken traditions of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism south of the Himalayas, preserving many ritual practices and Sanskrit-language texts that have been lost elsewhere. Celibate monasticism is no longer practiced among the Newars, but instead Buddhist ritualists are divided into two castes. One is the Shakyas, temple-priests who maintain ancient urban monasteries (Newar: bahas, bahis) as places of worship. The other is the Vajracharyas, tantric specialists who perform rituals at communal festivals and important life events. The Svayambhu Stupa is the most important ritual center for Newar Buddhists and the center of the Kathmandu Mandala. Today many Newars also practice Theravada and Tibetan Buddhism.

Pandita

Language:
Sanskrit

Pandita is an honorary title for a highly learned Buddhist scholar. Tibetans reserve this title for great scholars who were also teachers, for instance Sakya Pandita or the Panchen (“Great Pandita”) Lama tulku lineage.

patronage

A practice of hiring and commissioning artists to create works of art. In religious context patrons were often rulers, religious leaders, as well as ordinary people. (see also donor)

Tara

Language:
Sanskrit

Tara is an important deity in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Sometimes considered an emanation or consort of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Tara is known as a savioress who rescues those in peril. Tara has many different peaceful and wrathful forms, but she is often depicted as either green or white. The green form is associated with her limitless activity, and white with granting a long life. The green and white Taras are also associated with, respectively, the Nepalese princess Bhrikuti and the Chinese princess Wencheng, semi-legendary wives of the Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo (d. 649 CE), himself said to be an emanation of Avalokiteshvara. In one popular story Tara is said to have vowed to always appear in female form.

Vajracharya

Language:
Sanskrit

In Vajrayana Buddhism, a Vajracharya is a general term of respect for a teacher or tantric master who gives teachings and abhisheka initiations. In Newar Buddhism, Vajracharya is a specific caste of non-celibate ritual professionals, who make a living performing tantric rituals on behalf of members of the community.