Actually, I revived this thread thinking to incorporate recent literature in context of newars. Samir Jee, I don't want to sound like that I'm trying to defend. But I thought of adding few lines. I don't know when caste system got roots in Newar society, but it exists and it is bad. I won't make a strong conclusion as saying 'the rules are strict ones in comparision to other nepali community' unless we've data or know about other community. In fact, we don't bother to know much about other communities. That conclusion is baseless unless we've knowledge of each and every nepali community. The word 'arranged marriage' itself means finding the best compatible match. So obviously one'd look for caste and religion and other stuffs. But I've seen many marriages among hindu and buddhist newars. It is not that much of a big deal. I totally disagree that if conservatives consider it as bad as marrying outside newars because the language is another most important thing, and you'll find many hindu idols inside buddhist newar's houses. Most of buddhist newars are aware of hindu customs and texts like ramayana, mahabharat, and others. It is another story that hindu newars know much less than what buddhist newars know of hinduism. Your last statement about pode, chyames still hold true in many houses.