Milan Ratna Shakya
Tribhuwan University
Flowers are sacred items of veneration in a spiritual culture –a gift of romance in an aesthetic sense that augments the sensation of pleasure and delight. Flowers are also a symbol of appreciation and humble offerings paid to supreme beings in devotional psychology. In Nepal, Newār culture became pertinent from the medieval time (1200-1769). This culture dominated sacred and cultural life with agro-trading economics resulting from socio-cultural reform by order of Jayasthitimalla (1394) and embraced rituals of ancient predecessor’s in the cultural practices of Brāhmanic and non-Brāhmanic modes. The Sanskrit term Puṣpa means a flower used in sacred rituals, and Kusum means an object of veneration by the hand, i.e. Kara-kusum. The idealistic essence is the ripeness of nature and represents the perfection of human endeavor in sacredness. Therefore, flower offerings become a ritual of reception in Newār cultural tradition as Swān-chāyepigu, reverence paid to holy beings or objects.
Flowers are a motif of decoration from sacred to funeral rites in Newār cultural tradition. In the Daśa-Karma rite, a set of ten obligations of Newār Buddhist’s life, flowers are important for perfection. Flowers are a sign of veneration in holy offerings, and rites. In ceremonial life, flowers are sacred in an aesthetic sense. The aesthetic aroma symbolizes the seasonal greetings of humans to divine life in Newār cultural tradition.
This paper deals with the esoteric and exoteric sense of flowers in the symbolic aesthetics of ritual life and loyal respect in Newār culture for ‘the holy sign of perfection’ in ideal living.
(Presented in the 2014 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: Flower Culture in Asia, 8-9 July 2014, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, and Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University)