Guṃlā: Tradition, Reflection, and Practice in the Newar Buddhist World
This article launches our Guṃlā Series with a reflection on the history and significance of Guṃlā, a sacred month observed by Newar Buddhists as a time of gratitude, devotion, and pilgrimage. Namila Bajracharya, an alumna of our BA and MA in Buddhist Studies programs (Class of 2026), reflects on the intersection of personal faith and scholarly learning, drawing from both her experience as a practitioner and her academic training. She also shares selected verses that guide her contemplation during Guṃlā, offering insights into their enduring relevance. Future posts will feature additional verses and reflections. Stay tuned!
By Namila Bajracharya
BA & MA in Buddhist Studies, Class of 2026
Getting Started: Guṃlā Series
Just when I was getting ready to leave for the office, I overheard my aunt say, ” Guṃlā starts tomorrow.” For many Newar Buddhists, Guṃlā is not simply another month on the calendar. It is a significant month-long observance for Newar Buddhist in Kathmandu Valley, taking place during the monsoon season and characterized by devotion, pilgrimage, prayer, merit-making and traditional Buddhist music. It is the tenth month of the Nepal Sambat lunar calendar, typically falling in August-September. Devotees visit and make pilgrimages to sacred Buddhist sites, particularly Swayambhu, as part of their religious practices. The observance is associated with the broader Buddhist tradition of the monsoon retreat, a period traditionally devoted to intensified religious practice.
For me, however, hearing those words from my aunt brought back something more personal. I grew up in a Newar Buddhist family, so I was naturally surrounded by Newar Buddhist practices and traditions. At the same time, I was also influenced by Tibetan Buddhism as some of my cousins were ordained by a Tibetan Buddhist master. As a child, I was curious about the various practices I saw around me, the pujas my family performed, the books they read, and the rituals they participated in. But I never knew that there was a formal academic way of studying these traditions until after high school, when I sampled a class at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, I was intrigued by the combination of academic and traditional study as well as by the teachers, who were both highly qualified and genuinely kind. I joined the program and after four years, because I enjoyed my time there so much as a BA student, I undertook the MA in Buddhist Studies program. Those academic years were extremely enriching. I also learned lessons that go beyond academic knowledge, lessons about kindness, empathy, and patience.
Now, given that I come from these backgrounds, a question naturally arises: What do I do with what I have learned? Of course, one answer is to practice it and apply the learnings to my own life. We often hear phrases like “walk your talk,” “practice what you preach,” or “embody your philosophy.” These expressions point to an important distinction: knowing something intellectually and actually living by it are not the same thing. I started to think that I did not simply want to know more about Buddhism; I wanted to find ways to bring what I had learned into my everyday life.
This particularly clicked me when I realized that Guṃlā was approaching. I began to reflect on my own aspiration to be a scholar-practitioner that had become somewhat inactive. Perhaps Guṃlā was a good opportunity to bring it together. And so, I thought of creating a Guṃlā series. The idea was simple: throughout the Guṃlā month, I would explore different Buddhist teachings, verses, and passages; read and reflect on them; and share some of those reflections on social media.
As someone from Gen-Z, I also wanted to experiment with a medium that is very much part of my generation’s everyday life. Social media has become a powerful way of encountering and sharing information. We are surrounded by an ocean of opinions, advice, teachings, and ideas. This made me ask myself: What can I offer to this ocean? How do I want to use my social media?
Two things became particularly important to me: consistency and correctness. I wanted to see this series as a practice in itself—to make learning, reflecting, and sharing a habit, because habit plays such an important role in practice. At the same time, I wanted to make sure that what I shared was authentic and correctly presented. I wanted to be careful about what I shared.
At the same time, I also did not want to limit myself to the teachings of a single tradition or teacher. Buddhism is incredibly rich and diverse, encompassing aspects of philosophy, psychology, ethics, ritual, faith, logic, meditation, art, and so much more. Gunla series is my own small attempt to explore those aspects—not simply by talking about it, but by genuinely trying to practice it, live it, and share what I learn along the way.
A First Glimpse: The Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna
On the first day of the series, I started with a verse from a well-known text among the Newar Buddhist called the Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna, the “Aspiration for Good Conduct.”
During Guṃlā, groups of devotees traditionally gather to recite and sing Buddhist hymns, including Sanskrit stotras and vernacular Newar bhajans. The Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna is among the important texts encountered in this devotional tradition. It is also widely recited in Buddhist monasteries and homes in the Kathmandu Valley. The text forms the concluding section of the Gandavyūha, which is itself associated with the final portion of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Flower Ornament Sutra).
I had heard these verses chanted many times while growing up. I loved the melodies and the rhythm of the recitations, but, like many things I encountered repeatedly in childhood, I did not necessarily understand their meaning. One of the verses I chose for the first day reads:
yac ca kṛtaṃ mayi pāpu bhaveyyā rāgatu dveṣatu mohavaśena ।
kāyatuvācamanena tathaiva taṃ pratideśayamī ahu sarvam ॥ 8 ॥
Whatever bad actions I have done Under the power of desire, anger, and ignorance,
With my body, speech, and mind, I make a confession of them all.
For me, what I appreciate about this verse is its honesty. It does not ask us to pretend that we have never acted out of anger, attachment of confusion. Instead, it invites us to recognize these states and take responsibility for those actions that arise from them. This verse allows us to reflect on our own actions.
What I also find especially beautiful about the Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna is the way its verses lend themselves to chanting and memorization. Chanting can become a skillful way of becoming familiar with a text, not only with its words, but gradually with its meaning.
For someone who grew up hearing these verses without fully understanding them, returning to the text as an adult and encountering its meaning has been a particularly meaningful experience.
And that is one of the things I hope this series can offer.
The purpose of this series is not to present the whole picture of Buddhism, nor to provide definitive explanations of complex teachings. Instead, I hope to offer small glimpses, into a verse, a text, an idea, a practice, or perhaps a question worth thinking about. I believe that these can be starting points. We can point toward teaching, introduce a text, or share an idea, but genuine study, reflection, and practice ultimately require our own engagement.
So, I hope to keep learning and to share a little of that learning along the way. Stay tuned for the next part of the Guṃlā series, where I will share more about the different days, texts, and reflections that followed.
