A Priesthood That Survives Nowhere Else

The Newar communities of the Kathmandu Valley maintain the only surviving lineage of Sanskrit Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism outside Tibet, and it works in a way that has no equivalent elsewhere. David Gellner's study of Newar Buddhism describes a priesthood that is hereditary and householder rather than celibate and monastic.

The Vajracharya and Shakya castes are initiated into former monastery compounds, the bahas and bahis, which function as caste and ritual institutions rather than as residences for monks, and a Vajracharya priest serves client households much as a Brahmin priest does on the Hindu side. Gellner distinguishes three levels within the same tradition: the ordinary lay observance available to anyone, the monastic ideal preserved in ritual form, and the tantric initiations restricted to those entitled to them. That third level is closed. Its content is transmitted under initiation and is not published, and the atlas names the restriction rather than describing what is withheld.

The valley's Hindu and Buddhist practice is not separated by household. The same families may attend Pashupatinath and a Buddhist stupa, the same festivals draw both, and a number of deities are claimed by both traditions under different names. Newar religion is best described as one system that its own participants sort in more than one way.