Crowns of the Vajra Masters: Ritual Art of Nepal

Introduction

Ritual is at the heart of esoteric Vajrayana Buddhism, and central to its enactment in Nepal is the wearing of elaborate crowns befitting the perfected beings, the Transcendent Buddhas. Adorned with such a crown, the ritual practitioner is understood to be as an enlightened being, possessing spiritual wisdom and compassion, and enabled to share the bodhisattva-path with others.

These empowering symbols of ritual authority are worn exclusively by the hereditary caste of Vajracharyas, who occupy the highest rank in the Nepalese Buddhist community. Both a caste name and a priestly title, Vajracharya translates as the “thunderbolt scepter [vajra] master.” The designation entitles its holders to perform priestly service, analogous to the privileges of Brahmans in Hinduism, making them the officiating ritual agents of Vajrayana Buddhism as practiced in Nepal.

In this exhibtion, five spectacular crowns, evoking the five Transcendent Buddhas of awakened wisdom, are configured as a mandala, creating a cosmic field at its center, and encircled by paintings and objects of ritual performance. Made of gilt copper with applied repoussé medallions inset with semi-precious stones, rocks, crystals, and coral, these crowns are the ultimate emblems of ritual authority. Dating from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, they preserve the memory of early Indian esoteric Buddhist practices otherwise lost to us. The earliest prototypes of Vajracharya crowns, depicted adorning bodhisattvas, are found in the late fifth-century murals of the Buddhist rock-cut monastery of Ajanta, in central India.

This exhibition provides a rare opportunity to examine the devotional use, iconography and stylistic evolution of this remarkable ritual object, belonging to the final chapter of medieval Indian Buddhism and preserved in the small Newar Buddhist community of present-day Nepal.

John Guy
Curator of South Asian Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York