Handling Death: The Dynamics of Death and Ancestor Rituals Among the Newars of Bhaktapur, NepalIn a rare combination of competence, an architectural historian (Niels Gutschow) and an indologist (Axel Michaels) have documented death rituals of the ethnic community of Newars in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The first part of the book focusses to a specific setting, the ancient city of Bhaktapur and its calendric rituals of death and renewal. An introduction to the urban fabric with its cremation places, routes of death processions, places of spirits and ancestor deities is followed by a presentation of specialists involved in the death and ancestor rituals - illustrated by 28 maps. The second part presents a detailed description of the union of the deceased with his forefathers, a ritual which is also documented on a DVD. In addition, local handbooks and manuals used by the Brahmin priest during this ritual are edited and translated. This ethno-indological method of combination of textual and contextual approaches aims at understanding both the agency in rituals and the function of the text in contexts. Formalized rituals turn out to be by no means strict, stereotypical and unchangeable. The uniqueness of the actors, places and time has prompted the authors to name places and actors and to date time. The study of death rituals represents the first part of a trilogy of studies of life-cycle rituals in Nepal, carried out under the auspices of the Collaborative Research Centre "Dynamics of Ritual" (Sonderforschungsbereich 619: Ritualdynamik). |
Contents
Bhaktapur The Urban Fabric Rituals and Ritual Specialists | 13 |
Priests and Purity Specialists in Death Rituals | 34 |
Calendric Rituals of Death and Renewal | 63 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
10th day according addressing ancestors annual August balls Bhaktapur body Brahmin brothers brought called carried cast chief mourner clients clothes collect considered cooked corpse cremation ground daughters dead death rituals deceased dedicated deity father feast Finally fire five floor flowers forefathers four funeral association gift give given gods ground hands head holds household identified join Jugi Kumār leaves lineage living located Mahendra male means months mother mourning Narain Kumar Newar occasion offering performed period person Photo pindas plate polluted prepared present preta priest procession purity quarter Read receives recitation relatives remaining representing rice river sacrificial Salutation seven share shrine side sixteen space spirits status stone sub-caste symbolic taken takes temple tion town turn urban worship Yama