Shantipur

In sixteen fifty-eight, Buddhacharya priests stopped inside Shantipur before a stone door. They did not dare go farther. A severe drought lay over the valley, the coming harvest was under threat, and Jaya Pratap Malla, king of Kantipur, was seeking rain. To achieve this, he was advised to bring an ancient ritual mandala out of the underground shrine. The priests replied that they could not see the route below and would not risk their lives. Then the king went alone.

Why a remedy for the drought was sought here is explained by the legend of Shantikar. The Swayambhu Purana calls him King Prachanda Deva of Gauda: he handed the kingdom to his son, received initiation, and became a tantric master. One of the shrines he established was originally called Akashapura—the abode of space. Later it came to be associated with the name Shantikar and called Shantipur, “the abode of peace.” According to the belief of local Buddhists, the master secluded himself beneath the temple in deep meditation and continues to remain there alive.

Pratap Malla's descent itself is known not only from later retellings. A stone stele erected by the king stands at the inner door, and a map of the underground route was drawn up on his orders. It shows four levels of Shantipur. The king took ritual implements, fish, black soybeans, and cow's milk with him. Beyond the stone door, the map says, enormous bats tried to extinguish his lamp, hungry spirits seized his clothing, and the snakes had to be appeased with milk. The spirits and snakes belong to the tantric account of the journey; the inscription verifies something else—the king really did declare that he entered here for a rain-making ritual.

In the central underground chamber, according to legend, he found Shantikar: the master sat in meditation, alive, although almost no flesh remained on his body. The master explained what the king should do and gave him the mandala of the nagas—serpent beings associated with water. It was believed to have been drawn with the blood of eight naga kings. Along with it, Pratap Malla brought out the text of the Mahamegha Sutra, the “Sutra of the Great Cloud,” to expose the sacred objects to sunlight.

Above, the retinue waited for three hours, not knowing whether the king would return. He returned, rain fell, and that year's harvest, according to the same account, was abundant. The mandala was then taken back beneath the temple.

Behind the present closed door begins the inner ritual section of Shantipur. Outsiders are not admitted there; initiated Buddhacharya priests retain access. Pratap Malla's stele still stands beside the door—the record of the man who once ordered the passage opened, though his priests had refused to enter it.