The Blessing (and Curse) of Shiva  Ethan Gohen  Academic Director Christina Monson  S.I.T. Nepal  Spring 2008    1. Introduction       Halesi is a small, but growing village located in the Khotang District of  Eastern Nepal. In many ways it is rather normal. As is typical in this area of  Nepal, its inhabitants are mainly Rai Hindus, although there is a substantial  community of other Hindu castes as well. Less typically, there is a small, but very  important Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Halesi. The reason for this monastery is  even less typical still. In the rocky terrain around Halesi there are many caves. But  in the central rocky, tree covered hillock of Halesi bazaar there is one cave of  particular importance. By Hindus it is called Halesi. It gave the village its name.  By Tibetan Buddhists it is called Maratika. This cave, which is a naturally formed  cavity in every sense of the word, is thick with spiritual significance. It is  uniquely important religious site for both Hindus and Buddhists though, as yet,  the events that transpired here are not well known. But these events, as well as its  very naturalness, make Halesi one of the most important spiritual sites for these  two religions and perhaps the world. It is a great treasure in the hands of a little  village.   The purpose of this study is to illuminate what ways the presence of such a  significant temple has and will continue to affect the lives of the people in Halesi. It begins with the necessary historical and temple information to provide a basis  for understanding and then goes on to look at more recent phenomenon and the  dialogue in Halesi, a multifaceted exchange of belief and desires. One man, who  recognizes the inextricable connection between Halesi’s fate and the very  presence of the temple, jokingly referred to this relationship as the blessing of  Shiva. I would add that not everything that has happened in Halesi has been easy  for its people. At certain times, the presence of the temple may have seemed like  more of a curse than a blessing. This paper is an attempt to look at the way that  religious and practical realms interact in the little known story of one very  important place.    2. Methodology       After arriving in Halesi, my primary means of understanding this place has been through casual interviews. I have tried to talk to representatives of very  diverse social perspectives in Halesi society in order to get a rounded picture and  allow the people themselves to identify the issues and distinctions that were a reality to them. I worked with a translator to conduct most of my interviews. The  communicational flaws of translation are obvious. But there is still more to say  about my quest for information through the medium of a Nepali person. Nepali people are highly sensitive to caste and class hierarchies and may have edited  some attitudes according to the class and caste identity of my translator.  Fortunately, my main translator was an outsider from this community, lessening  the potential severity of this. One bias evident in my fieldwork is that most of my interviews come from male informants. This is because women, more often than men, were very busy in Halesi. Even if they were present, they often deferred to  the men or were dominated by the men in speech and thus refrained from  contributing much.    3. The Myths, Discovery, and Ordering of Halesi       It is not the purpose of this paper to give a full mythology and history of  Halesi temple and the surrounding area in the centuries prior. I am more concerned with recent history, present, and future projection. For a fuller  explanation of history and myths in Halesi see Buffetrille 1994, in English language, and for stories especially see Bhattarai 1984, in Nepali language.  However, some familiarity with the history and stories that define Halesi are  necessary to understand these more recent happenings and I will give a general  overview in this section using information gathered from by own fieldwork,  reinforced by the previous work of others.      4. Shiva and the Caves in Halesi      There are several caves in Halesi, some of which connect directly to the  story of Shiva, which is told by many people to varying degrees of specificity.  The two main caves are located in one forested hillock in the center of Halesi.  Shiva and his family first came to Halesi when running from a monster that wished to kill him. He fled into one of these caves, which I will refer to as the  Lower Cave since it has several names according to tradition. This cave opens  onto the low fair grounds of Halesi. Inside the cave, Vishnu defeated the monster  while Shiva, bursting through the ceiling of the cave, fled to safety in another  cave near to Argaule, a town on the road from Lamindada to Halesi. The Lower  Cave has features that tell the story of this event, although some are interpreted  differently by different traditions. A large stone in the opening is sometimes  called Shiva’s ox, which guarded the cave from the monster. It is alternatively  called the body of the dead monster himself. The pattern of his intestines can be  seen stringing over the arc of the cave’s ceiling overhead. In the back of the cave the ceiling opens up, letting in light through a large vertical channel from near to the top of the exterior hillock. The footsteps of Shiva are clearly imprinted in the side of the cave as he fled upward and blew out this hole according to the story.  Shiva returned to Halesi when everything was safe and made his home  with Parbati, his wife, in the upper cave. This is the main Shiva temple in Halesi,  where the power and presence of Shiva and Parbati are felt. They remained here until the current era of humanity. Sometimes they would leave the cave disguised  as Kiranti children and play in the forest or down by the banks of the Sun Khoshi  and Dhudh Khoshi rivers, two major rivers which flow on both sides of Halesi region down from the mountainous north. Inside the cave is a natural Shivalinga,  a stalagmite that rises from the cave floor. This is considered to be the  embodiment of Shiva. There is another rock that is believed to be the embodiment  of Parbati. There are in fact many rocks and passageways imbued with special  powers inside this cave. But the Shivalinga and Parbati are the main objects of  worship in the cave. Many people come simply to do darsan, meaning “to greet  god.” Others come to ask for blessings. Another common practice is called  bhakal, where a devotee asks for something and promises offerings to Shiva if, by  his grace, that wish comes to be.    5. Padmasambhava in Halesi      Specifically Buddhist history in Halesi begins with the story of  Padmasambhava, or Guru Rinpoche as he is referred to by Tibetan Buddhists.  Compared to the story of Shiva this is relatively recent time, in the time of  humans. There exists both a biography of Padmasambhava and Mandarava that  describe their experience in the cave of Maratika, its Tibetan name.  Padmasambhava’s biography describes Maratika as a place where a “rain of flowers constantly falls. Enveloped in a dome of rainbows, the scent of incense  permeates the air. It has a grove of sandalwood trees and is blessed by Lords of  the Three Families” (Tsogyal 1999, pp. 45). Mandarava’s biography describes Maratika as a “sacred power spot where the outer, inner, and secret mandalas were complete… a wish fulfilling jewel that surpasses any other sacred place in India for the practice of spiritual attainment” (Chonam and Khandro1998, pp. 152).   Padmasambhava came to Maratika with his consort, the Indian Princess  Mandarava, to perform the practice of vidyadhara longevity. After three months  of practice they had a vision of the Buddha of Long Life, Amitayus. Buddha  blessed them, pouring from a “nectar-filled vase of immortal life” into their open mouths (Tsogyal 1999, pp. 45). He made them “immortal pure awareness holders” (Chonam and Khandro1998, pp. 153). Following this they practiced the  Hayagriva Mechar Cycle on the union of Hayagriva and Vajravarahi in order to  eliminate any further obstacles. Upon successful realization, Mandarava  “compiled a treasury of more than a thousand extensive and concise longevity  methods, including essential pointing-out instructions” (Chonam and  Khandro1998, pp. 153).  For Buddhists, Halesi cave is most famous as a special spot for long-life  practices. This is particularly true of the site of the Parbati stone, called chhepuma  in Tibetan. The water that drips from the stones in several places throughout these caves, originating from the rock itself, is collected and considered to be the  equivalent of the Amitayus long-life nectar. It is called umbrik in Nepali, the anti- poison. It is also called jal, holy water, and is valued by Hindus as prasat, a god- blessed substance. The lamas at Maratika prepare a pill with this umbrik and call  it the “Maratika Long Life Pill (‘Liberation of Tasting’).”  6. The Rai People in Halesi        The area of Halesi, and the entire Khotang district in Eastern Nepal as well  as parts of Solu, is remembered by Rai inhabitants as their original homeland. The Rai are a mongoloid ethnicity of Nepal. They identify with a unique cultural  tradition called Kirant (which also encompasses Limbu people). They use this  term synonymously with varieties of Rai language, religion, and as an alternate  name for the Rai people themselves. The Rai people also call themselves Bhumi  Putra, a Sanskrit term that means “Sons of the Earth.” It is a worship and  closeness to nature that the Rai pride themselves on. However, since the nation of  Nepal was unified for the first time by Prithvi Narayan Shah in 1769 much of this  distinction has been lost. The Rai people identify themselves as a Hindu people  with the same beliefs as other Hindus in Nepal. This is because Prithvi Narayan  Shah knew that the only way to politically unify such a diverse country as Nepal  was to unify it culturally as well. For ideological reasons as well, he envisioned a  purely Hindu kingdom that would distinguish Nepal from a tainted India  (Whelpton 2005, pp. 56). Rai informants told of the clever tactics with which he undermined their own Kirant beliefs. Local Rai leaders, hired into the ranks of the new kingdom (and thus dependent on it), were made to enforce Hindu worship in  their communities and replace the Kirant cosmology.   Rai people still celebrate two unique annual festivals that they say are  links to their past traditions. Ubowle-Chadipurne (The first term translates to  “going up hill,” a recognition of the difficulty ahead. The second term translates  to “full moon day”) takes place around May and the Nepali month of Baisak, but  shifts according to the lunar calendar. This is an Earth worship puja held to bless  the planting season, which will determine their fortune for the rest of the year.  The second festival is Udhaule-Dhanipurne. It is the day of the new moon and the  harvest, held around November. At this time the Rai give thanks to the Earth for  their food. It is a happy time when plenty can be enjoyed. However, a characteristic of both these festivals is community wide music making and circle  dancing, an event that is fun for everyone. Despite these instances of “Earth  worship,” the Rai in Halesi say that the world’s primary god is Shiva, Paruhang  in Kirant language. Shiva’s wife Parbati, known as Sumnina in Kirant, is also  revered by them. These two Hindu deities are the main deities of Halesi Cave.  This area, previously a Rai Kingdom, used to be almost entirely forested  and the Rai people, the only inhabitants of this wild territory, were famous  huntsmen. 7. Discovery of Halesi     The story of how Halesi temple was rediscovered in more recent history, the late 18th century, involves one of these famous Rai hunters. It is  popularly told by the inhabitants of Halesi. Bagbashi Rai was hunting in the  rugged territory around Halesi with his dog when he spotted a golden deer with  three eyes and one antler. He chased the deer through the forest until it fled into the enormous black opening of a cave that Bagbashi had never seen before. It was difficult for him to descend into the cave, but when he finally did, he discovered  that the cave was the home of Shiva. The deer had in fact been Shiva himself exploring the outside, but inside he was manifest as a Shivalinga, a stalagmite on  the cave floor.   8. The Mahanta Giri Line      At this time, the Rai were a fully Hindu people. For several years, nothing  was officially done with the cave. But after a while it was decided, some say relayed by Shiva himself, that there should be a pujari, priest, to manage worship  at this cave. According to Hindu tradition priests are always either of the Brahmin or Jogi castes. Therefore the Rai could not be priests over this temple and a Giri  family was sent for from another district. The first Giri pujari of Halesi was  named Manohar Giri. In the early 19th century, he and his family were appointed  by the King of Nepal, Shri Shri Shri Maharaje Griban Yuddha Brikam Saha  Bahadur Sumser Jung, and confirmed with a Tama Patra, an engraved metal plate  that gave them the right to officiate in Halesi. The land around the temple was declared guthi land, a term that refers, in this case, to national land reserved for  the preservation of a religious site. Other uses, such as living or farming, were prohibited. After this declaration, The Rai inhabitants who had since settled  nearer to the temple were displaced down a steep hillside descending from the ridge top of Halesi down to the Sun Koshi, a major river that flows out of Solu  District. They formed the sprawling village of Kattike, which is even now known  as a Rai village.     The history of the Giri family in Halesi is not flattering. It lasted several  generations, roughly two hundred years, the son of the family acting as the bal  pujari, child priest who performed the actual worship, and his father as the  authoritative priest. Locals say that the Giri family claimed Halesi as their own private kingdom. They seized all guthi lands for their own farming and forced all  local non-Giri families to contribute free labor in their fields. The workers were  hardly even fed for their service. Many people I met, including a high caste  Chhettri man, remember working in the Giri fields. People who worshipped at the  temple typically brought offerings of rice, money, and livestock. All this was claimed by the Giri family for their personal use. For a long time, the Giris were  the only people in Halesi who ate rice, since it is too dry in Halesi to grow there.  The temple itself was only opened to worshippers and pilgrims at the Giri  family’s pleasure. The temple was so profitable that they maintained power in  Halesi using the very wealth that the temple generated. The temple was used as a means for the oppression of people and the Giris never intended to give that  power up. Until the 1990’s, this reign was absolute. to be continue........!