Religion of Nepal

Welcome to Nepal

In Nepal religion is not just belief-it is performance.Festivals are the great performances-cast of thousands magnificent chariots, masked dancers, lights and flowers and red tika powder. Household pujas are the small, personal performances-communion with god and goddesses at the family shrine in the kitchen or prayer room. Deities and minors spirits dwell everywhere, influencing and enriching the lives of all Nepalese.The god and goddess bring the people protection from misfortune, luck and prosperity, and inspiration in marriage. In return, the deities are given offerings and prayers of devotion and love. Most deities delight in flower, light, rice and vermilion powder of dozen shades of red. Some like liquor, some like blood, and almost all like music, dance and excursions around town in their chariots. There are thousands of deities in Kathmandu; it is like living in an invisible city. There are deities of different ages, classes, history and power: pesky minor spirits, unfortunate souls living as demons, powerful valley gods and the great deities of Hindu and Buddhist traditions. All are present and their presence informs the rich, complex culture of Nepal. Every morning, women or children walk out to a shrine in their neighbourhood. Perhaps the image within a clan god or perhaps the Ganesh, who will bring luck for the coming day. The worshipper carry a small pot of water and tray of offerings: flower, red tika powder, rice and wick lamp. A paste of the red powder is put on the god's forehead, the eyes of wisdom. And this tika is returned to the people, blessed with the power of deity, as they stop by the shrine during the day to put a spot of the god's tika on their own foreheads. In Nepal each home has its own group of gods and goddesses, according to the tradition, needs and inclination of the family: often Laxmi for prosperity or the divine couples Shiva and Parbati or Krishna and Radha for conjugal happiness. If the child is ill, the family may go to the temple of Sitala Ajima, the goddess of childhood diseases, on Swayambhunath hill. Each morning, the Tibetan Buddhist offers seven bowls of water at the family altar, abstract offerings of light, incense, music and other delights for the lamas, the Buddha and Budhisattvas, and the Dharma itself. Every corner of society is penetrated by the religion of small spirits. Iron pegs are pounded into the threshold of a shop to keep malicious spirits away. Pictures of Nag are pasted over the doors. Rituals must be performed before a house is built to propitiate the Nags who is living in the ground beneath. Religion knits the society with many small rituals of family unity. On Bhai Tika, during the festival of Tihar, brothers sit before their sisters to receive a multicolored tika of devotion. On Matatirtha, people go to " look upon their mother's face" reflected in a sacred pond. At Dashain, Tihar and many other festival times, everyone visits every extended family member within reach. Two forms of religion predominate in Nepal. Multifaceted Hinduism-the state religion-is the largest and most visible. There are two forms of Buddhism:Tibetan Vajrayana, the old Buddhist religion of the Valley, perhaps in part a remnant of the North Indian Buddhism which thrived before Muslim crusades. Within Nepal's multiplicity of caste and ethnic groups, there are hundreds of different religious practices and thousands of gods are worshipped by almost everyone. The white Lord of Compassion is Seto Machhendranath to Hindus and Newar Buddhists and Chenrezig to Tibetan Buddhists;lovely Saraswati, Hindu goddess of learning, is Buddhist Manjusri, the young god of wisdom holding a flaming sword. And everyone knows there's a Nag, or snake-god in every little pond