An interdisciplinary inquiry into a Himalayan Buddhist festival combining the methodologies of textual study, field enthnography and art historical research.

The Mani Rimdu festival is performed each year by Sherpa and Tibetan monks of the rNying ma sect in the Solu-Khumbu district of Nepal. The festival lasts two to three weeks and culminates in a public initiation ceremony, days of religious dance (Tib.' chams) and a burnt offering (sbyin sreg). Although the festival was inaugurated in the early twentieth century at Rongphu Monastery on the north face of Mount Everest, most of its rituals originate in the hidden text (gter ma) tradition of Mindroling Monastery in Central Tibet.

The paper examines the festival in light of its more than three hundred folia of liturgical texts. It analyzes the structure of the individual rituals and of the festival as a whole and compares traditional literary and oral accounts with actual performance. It isolates ritual "leitmotiven" and follows their permutations. It pays particular attention to the use of art in the festival and the festival itself as a work of art. It presents detailed iconographic information on the principal deities and comparisons with the iconography of other cults. It describes temporary artworks created specifically for the festival such as sculpture of butter and dough (gtor ma) and sand mandalas.

The paper frequently looks to the greater religious context both of Buddhism and of Central and South Asian religion, exploring analogous material from shamanist traditions, from pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion and from the tantric Buddhism of Tibet and of the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley. Such comparisons link the function and structure of ritual with its symbology and iconography.

The dissertation consists of four parts. The first part introduces the reader to major elements of the festival, addressing such topics as deities and their place in the pantheon, meditative technique and religious dance. It also discusses the history of the festival and analyzes themes common to the festival as a whole. The second part gives a day-by-day descriptive and analytic account of ritual, artistic and dramatic events. The third part presents annotated translation of the ritual texts. The fourth consists of concluding remarks. There are over sixty sketches, numerous charts and an appendix.