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Published: December 10th 2007
Guruba Engaged in Ritual
The Guruba or priest is busy with the ritual for Ben's mother. The flowers and fire are part of the offerings made to the deities who assist the departed one with the journey to the next destination. On Thursday Ben's entire family came to the house in Jhocchen for a special puja in honor of his mother, who died 3 months ago.
Ben has 7 sisters, and 2 brothers so just the immediate family makes a substantial crowd. Add to that the various cousins who also
made an appearance and there were close to 60 people that day. From early morning, Lilia's ninis (aunties) were busy preparing the items necessary for the rituals.
Ben and his family are Newars. Newars are the original inhabitants of the Kathmandu valley. Because they were an urban society from the beginning, they were able to develop a highly complex ritual culture. Some Newars are Buddhist and some are Hindu, although most families practice a combination of both. Ben's family is Buddhist, and so the ritual for his mother was based on Buddhist principles.
The traditional Newar rituals were plenty in number, and long in duration. After a death, the rituals required to assure that
a person's soul would safely journey onto the next life could last for weeks. Ben's family made the decision to do a shortened
version of the death puja for his mother, since in the modern day
Mandala
The mandala is a symbolic representation of the spiritual realms that a soul must pass through in order to find their way to the next life. It is made by the Guruba at the beginning of the ritual and swept away after it is over. and age it is very difficult for families to make the time
necessary to do what would be required in the full version. Nonetheless, this puja took almost half the day, not including the time
it took to prepare everything.
The Guruba (or priest) arrived at the house and spent several hours upstairs with Ben, his older brother, father, and sister. Newar rituals
require fire, flowers, rice, and a great assortment of different foods. The priest will draw a mandala, a drawing that is used
to guide a soul to its proper destination, on the ground with
special powder. He will then pray and chant for
long amounts of time, during which time complicated offerings are made with the fire, flowers, rice and food items. Nowadays
most Newar people have forgotten what these rituals mean. The significance of the actions have been lost, making the process
of following them in such detail seem pointless. Because of that some priests are now translating the rituals to people in order
to help them reconnect with their traditions before they are lost forever. As the older generations disappear, there is a chance
that much of the Newar culture will disappear with them.
The Ritual Items
Some of the ritual items used for the puja. A photos of Ben's mom is in the center, framed by a flower necklace. After the puja is over, everyone in the household receives a blessing from the Guruba and his wife, Guruma. The members of the family must then sit on the floor and eat a special ritual meal as part of the offering to the
Buddhist deities. Soon after that, another meal is served which is the main food for the day. Each person eats on
a banana leaf plate which is thrown to the cows after the meal is over. Just the food preparations for this day
took several people 2 days.A substantial portion of the day is spent eating, and everybody goes home full. More importantly it
is a chance for the family to gather together in the memory of a loved one who has passed away.
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Ardie
non-member comment
Kathmandu
I enjoyed reminiscing Nepal's culture and their ceremonies. Although Lilia's mom sounded jetlagged upon arrival, pictures of Lilia illustrated that, jetlagged or not, she found Nepal fascinating. Of course we didn't see a pic of her in the traffic! But everyone responds that way the first time in Nepal or India traffic. Crazy as it is, I've never witnessed any mishaps. I'd love to hear Lilia describe that car-ride experience. What good fortune that Lilia has TWO cultures to celebrate! I wonder if the USA will seem boring after this experience.