The Study on the Nepalese Buddhist Homa

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In the project, I focused on a Homa ritual of the Buddhist Tantrism named Sahasrahutihoma performed by Newar Buddhist priests. This report contains the philological study of the Sanskrit text and the field work. The homa ritual consists of two parts, those are, 1. Preliminary rite Kalasarcanapuja and 2. Main rite Homa. The preliminary rite contains three rituals : (1) Gurumandalapuja, (2) Trisamadhi, (3) Kalasapuja. In (1), the priest draws a circle called Gurumandala, and he invites Vajrasattva into the circle and offers flowers etc. to the deity. In (2), the visualization of the Cakrasamvaramandala and offering worship (puja) are performed. In (3), the priest invites the main deity of the Homa ritual into a water-jar (kalasa) and offers flowers and so on. Then he tries to unify himself with the main deity. The main rite Homa consists of eight processes : (1) Purification and Lighting of the Fireplace, (2) Fire Offering to the Fire God Agni, (3) Fire Offering to the Main Deity, (4) Bali Offering and Worship of Holy Places, (5) Purification of Disciples (6) Filling the Fireplace with Offerings, (7) Offering the Remainders of Oblations, and (8) Sending forth the Gods. In the first process, the priest meditates upon the Samayagni. In the second process, he meditates upon the Jnanagni. And he unites the Samayagni with the Jnanagni in the meditation. Then in the sixth process, he draws the unified deity into his body. The meditation of the deity and the mandala sophisticates the ritual. Various kinds of offerings are put into the fire in the Homa. In the ancient Indian Srauta homa, the function of the fire was important. However, in the Newar Homa, characters of the offerings are very important. The fact shows that Newar Buddhist Homa was much influenced from the offering worship puja.