Ushnishavijaya and Celebration of Old Age (Jyatha Janko)

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0:00:06.5 Dr. Steven Zucker: We’re in the McMullen Museum of Art in Boston, looking at objects in a special exhibition that actually come from the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. This is a museum that is devoted to the art of the Himalayas, of Tibet, and of inner Asia. We’re looking at a fairly large painting that comes from the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, and it’s a painting that is produced in celebration of old age as part of a ritual that is held for someone who has become 77 years old, seven months, and seven weeks.

0:00:44.2 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: It is called Jyatha Janko, and it is meant to celebrate someone reaching this stage in their life, and this painting will be used for worship by the elders after the ritual and after they pass this threshold of 77 years, seven months, and seven weeks.

0:01:04.6 Dr. Steven Zucker: So my question is, why this particular number?

0:01:07.6 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: In Newar culture, seven is considered a complete set.

0:01:12.0 Dr. Steven Zucker: The Newar live in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal.

0:01:15.9 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: And they are one of the ancient native cultures and people of the Kathmandu Valley.

0:01:22.5 Dr. Steven Zucker: This painting plays an important role in the ritual itself.

0:01:26.0 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: The painting is actually required to be commissioned by the family for the ritual. So the upper portion of the painting usually depicts the stupa, various deities arrayed around the stupa, and these two registers in the bottom illustrate the ritual itself, where you can see the ritual moving leftward. And what happens during the ritual is that the elders are celebrated. They receive this abhisheka ritual. You see there’s people pouring water onto them, and then next they are venerated because they become almost like deities, and then they’re placed in the chariot pulled by the family. We also have imaginary horses in a way. There are celestial horses of the sun god. And then we have [a] Vajracharya priest performing a ritual. And in the bottom we have the family who sponsored the ritual, on the left, usually male members of the family, and on the right, we have female members of the family.

0:02:23.8 Dr. Steven Zucker: I’m struck by the difference in the representation of the people enjoying the ritual itself and the deities that are represented. The bodies tend to be more frontal, and these figures tend to be seen in profile.

0:02:37.9 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: The deities, especially Buddhist deities, are usually represented frontally because they’re meant to be imagined, visualized.

0:02:46.4 Dr. Steven Zucker: There are so many figures in this painting, but each is represented in a particular way in order to help us quickly and clearly identify who they are and what they represent.

0:02:56.7 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: Viji Ushnishavijaya, who is depicted in the dome of the stupa, is usually protected by these four scary-looking wrathful deities who are part of the Ushnishavijaya’s mandala or entourage.

0:03:10.4 Dr. Steven Zucker: They’re so dynamic and they give a sense of action and energy.

0:03:14.2 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: Ushnishavijaya has three heads and eight arms, and other deities within the stupa are Vasudhara, a deity of prosperity and abundance, which makes perfect sense because we want the elders to continue to be wealthy and prosperous. And then we have this other deity, most probably it’s the goddess Grahamatrika, the mother or the source of the planetary deities, which are depicted at the periphery of the painting. You can recognize the Five Transcendental Buddhas. Sometimes they’re called the Five Buddhas of the Directions: four cardinal directions and one in the center.

0:03:55.1 Dr. Elena Pakhoutova: The white is Vairochana, yellow is Ratnasambhava, blue is Akshobhya, red is Amitabha, and green is Amoghasiddhi. And then the planetary deities, which are in the periphery of the painting, and then there’s two flanking the spire of the stupa depicted in three-quarter view in their recognizable iconography. And then in the bottom we have the Manjushri, deity of wisdom. During the ritual, the family and the elders also accumulate positive karma. So that ensures not only that they will continue living in good health, be prosperous in their retirement, strengthen their life, and also assure the good next rebirth. It’s a wonderful occasion to honor the elders in the family and maintain this historical record of the family’s existence and social standing. Some families actually make financial sacrifices to honor their elders.

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This work at the Rubin Museum of Art

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Learn more about this topic on Project Himalayan Art, a resource from the Rubin for learning about Himalayan, Tibetan, and Inner Asian art and cultures:

Icons Marking the Communal Performance of Buddhist Rituals

Living Practices: Ritual

Chariot Ritual (Bhimaratha Pata)

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