Significance of Gunla Festival

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Visiting Caityas every morning, Nepalese Buddhists celebrate a month-long reverence to Lord Buddha in the month of Sravan (July-August) in the Vikram calendar. Before taking a meal, some women revere Lord Buddha molding miniature black clay Caityas every day. This is done to remind them the teachings of Lord Buddha and attempt to practice them in their daily lives at least for a month; however, currently, devotees simply toss rice, flowers and vermilions at Caityas instead of refreshing their minds with the teachings of Lord Buddha. This is called a Gunla festival.

Male youths of a special Newar caste playing drums and cymbals, and of another Newar caste playing clarinetists and joining them form a musical band for visiting Caityas in celebrating the month-long Gunla festival. These drums are powerful musical instruments hung on neck by a string and played beating the right side by a stick and the left side by a hand. Young male adults in a number of pairs play these drums. They together with a few clarinetist players form a musical band that plays music on the way to the Caityas and back home.

Similarly, another Newar caste group also plays different sorts of drums and different musical instruments forming a musical band for visiting Caityas. Traditionally, these musical instruments are made of animal horns; however, in the course of modernization, new modern musical instruments have taken the places of these traditional musical instruments.

Gunla begins on the first day of the bright fortnight of the month called Sravan (July-August) in the Vikram calendar, and ends on the first day of the bright fortnight of Bhadra (August-September). During this one-month period, Newar Buddhists visit Caityas every morning. Some go with a musical band. In this period, some Newar Buddhists do not eat chicken and eggs for some reasons. Abiding by traditional rules Buddhist-Newar priests do not eat chicken and eggs at all.

Gunla is a Newar word made of two separate words: ‘gun’ means auspicious, and ‘la’ means a period. Therefore, Gunla means an auspicious period during which Newar Buddhists visit Caityas.

Some devout Buddhist women observe a month-long reverence to Caityas. They keep themselves clean taking a wash and eating a single meal every day for a month. In addition, they mold miniature black clay Caityas following special rituals and perform religious rites to them believing that this practice will earn them merits. They keep such miniature Caityas until the last day of the festival.

On the last day of the Gunla festival, the devout women perform special rites of disposal of these clay Caityas at a river. They put on their best dress and wear expensive jewelry for going to a river with the Caityas. Holding miniature Caityas on a tray, they follow a musical band to a river. There, they perform last rites to Caityas and then dispose them of at the river.

Caityas are built in a spherical structure to reflect the teachings of Lord Buddha. After the death of Lord Buddha, some people developed a physical structure called Caitya to store the remains of Lord Buddha, and to reflect his teachings in it. So, a Caitya is a symbolic representation of three basic teachings such as Sila (moral principles), Samadhi (mind concentration), and Pragya (knowledge of universal truth) of Lord Buddha. Anybody wishing to reach nirvana or self-realization of an eternal life needs to strictly follow Sila, Samadhi and Pragya. So, Caitya is a roadmap to nirvana.

A Caitya has three main parts: foundation, dome and parasol. Foundation is made of three-tiered square slabs laid on one after another. Each slab on top of another is smaller than the underlying one. Each slab represents one of the three moral principles such as speaking only truth, doing only right things, and living right life that come under Sila. This style of correct living strengthens the mind and the body.

The next part of a Caitya is the dome where the remains of Lord Buddha are stored. It represents right meditation, right thinking and right concentration that come under Samadhi. This helps to achieve Pragya means realization of universal truth.

The parasol consisting of a thick square slab on top of the dome and then on it standing thirteen metallic rings placed at an interval of few inches, and an umbrella on top of them. This is where anybody could gain the knowledge of universal truth. To reach this end, anybody needs to cross thirteen hurdles represented by thirteen rings; this is possible concentrating mind in her/his body. So, this represents the way to achieving Pragya.

Thus, Caitya stands for Buddhist teachings. The foundation of Caitya stands for Sila is for attaining Samadhi, as without Sila nobody could achieve Samadhi. So, Sila is the foundation for Samadhi. When somebody has built a dome in other word Samadhi; then, s/he could reach the highest stage called nirvana climbing one ring after another. This is an ultimate stage of self-realization of an eternal life. Thus, Caitya is a simplified depiction of Lord Buddha’s teachings.

Traditionally, Newar Buddhists used to meditate sitting at a Caitya. It reminds Sila, Samadhi and Pragya the basic principles of Buddha’s teachings constantly to anybody meditating at it. So, some Newars kept small-sized Caityas in their prayer room at home. They practiced meditation sitting cross-legged at such Caityas every morning and evening.

Nepalis have built numerous Caityas in the Kathmandu Valley. Even today, each square has at least a Caityas otherwise may have a few more. Some square has numerous Caityas. Even at the Hindu temples, Nepalis have built Caityas. So, visitors will find Caityas and Hindu temples standing side by side in Nepal.

Currently, devotees toss rice, vermillion and flowers at Caityas probably totally forgetting their meanings. Lord Buddha had strictly prohibited his devotees to perform any religious rites to idols or images in any form during his lifetime, rather he advised them to practice his teachings and experience the eternal peaceful lives, and achieve nirvana following Sila, Samadhi and Pragya. However, in the course of development of Buddhism, Buddhists split into Hinayan means a small group and Mahayan means a larger group, then the Mahayan Buddhists developed Caityas and began worshipping the idols of Buddha. Later on, a branch of Mahayan developed into Vajrayan that followed Tantric rituals of worship. Vajrayan Buddhists did not differ much from the Tantric Hindus.

Newar Buddhists follow Vajrayan Buddhism, and have set a tradition of offering ritualistic rites to Caityas and the Buddha forgetting the core values of his teachings. They also set the tradition of Hindu way of offering rice, flower, vermillion and some food items to Caityas.

Designers of Caityas have done so to make common folks to understand the basic principles of Buddha’s teaching just visiting them. The Gunla festival is actually for refreshing the teachings of Lord Buddha once every year. However, currently, the Gunla festival has probably been limited to visiting Caityas and tossing rice, vermillion and flowers at them.


Note:

1.    This year, Gunla starts on August 02, 2008 and ends on August 31, 2008
2.     Newar is not an ethnic term but a cultural term denoting the very rich and complex culture of the society of the Valley. (P. 02 of Karunamaya by John K. Locke, 1980 edition)
3.    Newar Buddhism is a confused mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism peculiar to the Valley of Nepal. (P. Xiv of Karunamaya by John K. Locke, 1980 edition)