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Different in various rituals but not in essence are the practises af Newar Buddhists who true to Mahayana tradition accept more than one road to Enlightenment.

Incorported into their social customs is the acceptance of caste, and their pantheon of families is headed by the hereditary priests or Gubajus amongst whom are scholars and ascetics of the highest order.

It is a feature of Mahayana that it accepts practises of the Lower Vehicle as valid steps towards true Enlightenment, indeed, amongst the Newar families there are some ceremonies that bear much similarity to the Buddhist prartises of South-East Asian Hinayana Buddhists. The greatness of Mahayana lies in its all-embracing quality, and the Buddhists of Nepal have many gods in common with the Hindus, or more correctly, many aspects of the re-incarnation of Buddha which correspond to Hindu deities. They too are great believers in the Tantric arts.

A favourite god of both Hindus and Buddhists alike is the Red Macchendranath or Red Avelokiteswara, a rain-god for Hindus whilst for Buddhists he is Chenresig, the reincarnation of the Compassion of Buddha.

Finally, we come to the Bon or animist religion which is neither of the above two, although some aspects of Bon worship are similiar to them both and old animists gods have often been accomodated in Hindu and Buddhist worship. The animists rely on Jhankris to lead their worship. The Jhankris are priests and faith-healers who will declare spells to cure ailments and enrich lands. At the same time they are skilfull healers with old remedies and their medicine is not to be dismissed in a land where modern medical facilities are not easily available. In fact their role is probably nearest in kinship to that of the North-American tribal medicine man. They claim neither to be Hindu nor Buddhist although they probabty mix a little of the beliefs of each into their worship.

This indeed is typical not only of this region but of Nepal as a whole. Worship is life in a way that is difficult to visualise for those who come from countries that are technologically a century or more ahead of ours. Hopefully this brief will have given you a glimpse of the many aspects of belief that make up religlon in Nepal, although you will have to take it on trust that there is a certain unity in it all.

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