Mataya Festival of PatanMin Bahadur shakya Director Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods Introduction: Mataya is a unique Buddhist festival of Patan to be held in the month of August. This day-long journey around the historical city starts at the dawn, on the third day of the dark fortnight of Shrawan (August). Very few cities in the world compares with Patan (Lalitpur) in the richness of its cultural heritage—a claim that really makes sense, especially when you are talking about something with the unmatched wonder of –Mataya Festival. This word "mata" means ‘lights’ and "ya" festival or also means to a sacred ‘journey’. Another form of interpretation is that Mataya or Matya in Nepal Bhasa i.e not conquered (by the Maras).Being defeated Mara, the god of desire submits to the Buddha and pay homage to Lord Buddha for confession. In this event people participate in this festival to worship Buddha and also for accumulating merits for the dead. Devotees process to all the Buddhist shrines in the city, offering rice grains, flowers and lighting candles. Men and women walk in a line of thousands between these musician groups and do puja at the votive shrines (chaityas) carrying lighted candles and torches. Historical background: According to Wright's chronicle, King Gunakamadeva ,( the grandson of King Balarchana Deva was the first king who instituted the tradition of Mataya Festival together with Sringabheri Jatra.To organize the festival he asked ten localities( tole) of the Patan city.They were 1.Mangal Bajar 2.Chakrabahil 3.Ikhachen 4. Bubahal 5.Haugal 6.Ukubahal 7. Ikhalakhu 8.Kobahal 9.Saugal 10. Nakabahil Preparation of Mataya Festival: The preparation for Mataya begins on the first day of Gunla. After mid-night on this day a group of some hundred people with nava bajan (traditional Newari musical ensemble) gather and follow the exact path that they are to follow on the day of Mataya. They don’t finish the whole route on a single go, but gather every night for a few nights and mark the shrines and courtyard with vermilion, husked rice and coins as they pass. This event is called Bogiwonegu. On the grand day of -Mataya, massive number of devotees, sometimes as many as several thousand, gather at the locality that is in charge of the festival for that year. There are ten different localities which take turns to organize the festival by sponsoring instruments, musicians and all the other expenses. This year’s (2010) Mataya is organized by the Oku-Bahal locality. They gather at the lead locality dawn and start their yatra with a hint of excitement and uncertainty in their cheerful faces; for they must walk all day long often bare-footed and fasting. It is a great scene to watch people prepare for their procession around the four principal Ashoka stupas spread in and around the four corners of Patan. They must all visit all the 1400 private and local votive shrines scattered in the city on their way. Groups of friends participate, dressed alike—Maharjan women in the traditional haku patasii dress; men in traditional daura suruwal and dhaka topi. Buddha defeats Mara: As stated in Lalitavistara Sutra Lord Buddha vanquishes the Mara in the Full Moon day of month of shravan and in the second day Maras worshipped Him out of respect and devotion.Since the light of wisdom downs on Him, the Buddha.Newar Buddhist celebrates this as Festival of lights ( New:mataya) This is the festival commemorating the victory of Shakya Muni over the Maras. When Siddhartha was performing austere practice to become Buddha, The Enlightened One, the Maras disguised themselves as demons and damsels in order to disturb his meditation. In the Buddhist text like Lalitavistara daughters of Mara are called ragarati, dveshrati and moharati, and so forth.That means the attachment or craving,hatred or Ignorance and so on. The day of Mataya is the day when Shakya Muni overcame his temptations or afflictions and attained Buddhahood.It is said that these maras began to appear in the form of demons or wild animals such as monkeys and lions. Even the God Maheshvara come to pay homage to Buddha sometimes with seven sages ( sapta rishis) to appreciate Buddha's victory over Mara.The devotees offer rice, grains, vermilion, incense, alms bowl at the shrines. The offering of oil or butter lamps signifies the enlightenment of Sakya Muni Buddha. Event on Buddha's visit to Lumbini. We are going to describe here some special feature in the procession of Mataya celebration. This is an event of Buddha's visit to Lumbini.In this event the committee invites some volunteers to participate in this event to dresse themselves as various gods which includes Brahma, Vishnu , Maheshvara, Indra, varuna, Nagaraja and so forth to welcome Buddha's visit to Lumbini after enlightenment.Newar Buddhists are fond of singing songs on Budha's visit to Lumbini as " Jaya namo shri Buddha Bhagavan Lumbini Bijyaka"….. This Song was composed by anonymous writer in the year 1864 during the reign of surendra Vikram Shakha ( 1847-1881). The following is the translation of the song in English Buddha descends to Lumbini The Bodhisattva passes from his abode in the Tusita Heaven, in order to be reborn as Gautama Buddha, and Gods and Lokapalas hasten to pay him respect. The song was composed in A.D. 1865 during the reign of Surendra Vira Vikrama Saha (A.D. 1847- 1881) Homage to the venerable Buddha arriving at the grove of Lumbini. He arrives and causes Brahma to sweep the ground before him; Sarasvati to spread a carpet; Kubera, the king of the town of Alankapuri, to throw about money and wealth; And causes the God Vayu to fly his fan; the god Agni to burn incense, the king of the Nagas, Varuna, to make streams of water flow; Mahadeva to beat his drum; Narayana to blow his conch; King Yama to take his staff in hand and clear the way; Indra to hold an umbrella over him; crowds of monks to fan him with chowries (whisk made of Yak’s tail); heaven to rain a shower of flowers. He arrives with feelings of joy. He arrives, borne by Sesanaga, together with Nairrta, Jnanakara and others, and accepts their worship. This song was composed in the year ‘forest-elephant-jewel’ (i.e. 1865) when the glorious Surendra was King. The singer, a poor man, says: I take refuge in the Teacher. In this procession devotees offer various materials representing the deities for example: 1.a broom representing the god brahma 2.devotees blowing of conch representing Narayana or Vishnu 3.beating of drum representing Mahadeva 4.Offering cauchatra representing Indra, the king of gods. 5.Offering staff embedding a snake representing Yamraja, the king of Hell realms 6.Offering stream of water representing Varuna Nagaraja 7.Offering incense in a pot representing agnideva the god of fire. 8.Offering flag or banner representing Vayu deva, the god of wind 9.Offering five jewels or money representing Kuver, the god of wealth. 10.Offering carpet representing Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom 11.Offering camar to fan the Buddha representing Buddhist monks 12.Beating drums , dancing and playing music representing Gandharvas and kinnars 13.Offering red powder and dried grains repesenting goddesses 14.Offering alms bowl representing Anathpindaka, the merchant who built Jetavana Monastery for the Buddha. 15.Offering milkrice representing Sujata, the lady who offered Siddhartha rice milk before he attained enlightenment. 16.Offering rice plate representing the mother earth. 17.Offering water with a conch and vase representing naga maidens 18.Offering camphor lamp and incense representing sun and moon. 19.offering five coloured thread lamp representing the burning of five delusions symbolized by five aggregates or Maras. 20.to ensure good health to all sentient beings one offers amba, halah,bihalah and gvalah and so forth. 21.One offers sugar cane juice representing nectar of gods. 22.One offers fruits to represent the services made by monkey Dharmakara in Kimsuka forest. 23.One offers printed papers inscribing dharanis, mantras and sutras to praise the Buddha and his teachings. Conclusion: From these festival we can conceive how Newars have conceived their own form of Buddhism i.e in the integration of Hindu and Buddhism. Mr. Hubert Decleer, a prominent scholar based in Kathmandu on the other hand, suggests an alternative cause of this inclusivism. He says that this integrative style was adopted as auto-defensive measure from within the Buddhist camp. It is said that when Śankar Ācārya, in the course of pillaging Buddhist scriptures, confronted a Buddhist text containing the name of Ganesh or Mahādeva, that text was spared from destruction.” My own humble opinion is that Newar Buddhists must have prepared a series of survival strategies or policies of amalgamation – technically speaking, skill in means (upāyakausalya) – for the survival of their own form of Buddhism. The solution was quite different from those chosen in other Buddhist countries. The veneration of Svayambhū, Mañjuśrī/Sarasvati, Guhyeśvari/Parvati, and the eight vitaragas/eight sites of lingeśvaras was a powerful syncretic strategy on the part of Newar Buddhists. Besides, they never abandoned such basic Buddhist practices as the triple refuge and the various vrātas (namely, the uposadha vrāta as well as the Bodhivrāta), as the text relates. The lifestyle of an “Adikarmic Bodhisattva” (who performs basic rituals such as vrāta) provides a strong basis for the retention of Vajrayānic traditions in a situation where monasticism is declining. Mr. Decleer observes that “eventually, the Vajrayāna became a closed system, accessible only to high caste Buddhists.” Vajrācāryas became the parallel of Brahmanic priests. However, Dr. John K. Locke points out that caste-based Vajrayāna practices, although untenable from a strictly Buddhist viewpoint, worked well for centuries in a Hindu setting, preventing them from vanishing altogether. Whereas in India and other countries, the rejection of syncretic approaches to Hinduism, along with the pressure of Hindu or Afghan fundamentalism, led to the complete disappearance of Mahāyāna Buddhism. “In Southeast Asia, the Śiva-Buddhist syncretism, as witnessed in Java and Bali, resulted in only Śaivism surviving, with only a few Buddhist names and symbols remaining. On the other hand, Southeast Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar abandoned the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna altogether in favor of an exclusively Theravāda tradition, which places major emphasis on the Vinaya. By contrast, Newar Buddhism survived relatively intact, preserving secret Mantra, even maintaining the language and the styles of the Sanskritic world.”