caste: Sakyas and Vajrācāryas: From Holy Order to Quasi-Ethnic Group

Buddhists associate Manicur with persecutions, similar to how Brahmans link the same place with their own 'defeat'.
Rajopadhyaya Brahmans are considered too high in status to serve as pūjārī in a pitha type of temple.
Sakyas and Vajrācāryas are seen as Nepalese inheritors of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism.
Sakyas' and Vajrācāryas' self-identity is evolving from a caste of monks and priests to an ethnic minority within a Hindu nation-state.
Traditionally, Sakyas and Vajrācāryas form a composite Buddhist sacerdotal caste, denying the religious supremacy of Brahmans and Hindu scriptures.
They are sometimes called 'Buddhist Brahmans' because they provide priests for Newar Buddhists.
Sakyas and Vajrācāryas claim their origin in all four $varṇa$ s, standing outside the social order.
Hindus often regard Sakyas and Vajrācāryas as $vaiśya$ s or $śūdra$ s.
The Rana legal system classified them as $śūdra$ s.
Vajrācāryas are Tantric adepts who practice on behalf of others and need to be married.
The ideal Vajrācārya is a sexually active Tantric saint ( $mahāsiddha$ ) who maintains awareness of emptiness.
Vajrācāryas combine different aspects of priesthood that Hinduism separates, filling roles such as renouncer, scholar, teacher, domestic priest, and temple priest.
Only Vajrācāryas may be domestic priests.
Sakyas and Vajrācāryas maintain a pious and religious lifestyle, showing higher personal piety and cohesiveness in religious events.
Every adult male Sakya and Vajrācārya must be a member of a recognized monastery.
The Sakya and Vajrācārya caste numbers between 35,000 and 45,000 people.
Almost half (44.9%) of all Sakyas and Vajrācāryas belong to Lalitpur monasteries.
Vajrācāryas represent 37.9% of the total Sakya and Vajrācārya population.
Most Sakyas are artisans, particularly goldsmiths.
A considerable minority of both Sakyas and Vajrācāryas are engaged in shopkeeping and commerce.
Monasteries as corporate institutions actively bought, sold, and mortgaged land, benefiting the Sakyas and Vajrācāryas belonging to them.
Newar Buddhists structure their tradition by a hierarchy of three ‘Ways’ ( $yāna$ ): the Disciples' Way ( $śrāvakayāna$ ), the Great Way ( $mahāyāna$ ), and the Diamond Way ( $vajrayāna$ ).
The monastery encapsulates all three Ways.
The Diamond Way is available only to high castes through Tantric Initiation.
Vajrācāryas are seen as the guardians of Newar Buddhism to a greater extent than Sakyas.
When Newar Buddhists refer to their religion, they call it $buddha dharma$ or $buddha mata$ , and themselves $buddhamārgi$ .
The Vajrācāryas are the apex of the Newar Buddhist hierarchy.
All Vajrācārya and Sakya boys must go through monastic initiation to become full members of their caste.
If a Vajrācārya or Sakya man marries a woman of lower caste, the offspring are not accepted as caste equals.
The Nay Gubhaju, Sakyas, and Vajrācāryas all represent cases where Newar Buddhism permits a segmentation of priestly functions on the grounds of caste.
The superiority of Vajrācāryas to Sakyas is accepted socially but is a question of religious status, not caste.
Intermarriage between Vajrācāryas and Sakyas is common outside Kathmandu.
For Newars, isogamy is the norm; this is certainly so for Sakyas and Vajrācāryas.
Within the Sakyas, at least two grades of social status were traditionally recognized, with members of monasteries called $bahi$ being lower than those of $bāhāḥ$ .
In Kathmandu, members of the $bāhāḥ$ justify their reluctance to marry into $bahi$ by saying that the latter are the offspring of mixed-caste marriages.
Other castes regard the Sakyas and Vajrācāryas as one homogeneous mass.
Lower castes call them all $gubhāju$ , although strictly this term applies only to Vajrācāryas.
Sakyas and Vajrācāryas require domestic priests, barbers, and low-caste death specialists.
Traditionally Sakyas and Vajrācāryas lived in households grouped in patrilineages, defined by those who share the same cooking hearth ( $bhutu$ ).
Sakya and Vajrācārya lineages are identified by nicknames, recognized within the community.
Three categories of $phuki$ (lineage) are recognized: distant, lineage proper, and 'marrow' or 'inner' lineage.
After a severe quarrel, they may refuse to observe restrictions on the death of a brother or cousin, thus denying kinship with him or his family.
Nowadays there is a tendency for what was probably just one stage in the developmental cycle of the lineage to become a permanent condition, i.e., disregard the larger grouping, lineage proper.
Lineage maintained a single Tantric shrine ( $aga$ ) where rituals were performed and even sometimes built a special house ( $āgā che$ ) for it.
When Śākyas or Vajrācāryas whom they are debarred from marrying on grounds of kinship or affinity, the answer is usually that one may not marry anyone within seven generations ( $pusta$ ) on either side.
Traditionally daughters had no right to inherit family property.
In recent years there have been several attempts to codify and set a maximum limit to all ritual exchanges and expenditures.
The Sakyas and Vajrācāryas of Lalitpur issued two rule-books ( $niyamāvali$ ), in 1975 and 1979, to regulate all complex rituals .
However, the law has had an important effect where there are no sons: an unmarried daughter can now inherit, where previously the property would have passed to her father's brothers.
The three types of $guthi$ which are really significant for the functioning of Śakya and Vajrācārya life are the death $guthi$ , $guthi$ s for the worship of a particular deity, and the lineage deity $guthi$ .
The most important $guthi$ for Sakyas and Vajrācāryas is not the death $guthi$ or the lineage deity $guthi$ but the monastery.
The religious services traditionally provided by Sakyas and Vajrācāryas for other Newars have come under attack from several directions.
The Sakyas and Vajrācāryas have no tradition, unlike many other landlords, of actively seeking out tenants and ensuring that rent in kind was paid and paid in full.
The one crucial difference which remains between the Sākya and Vajrācārya caste and other Newars is that the Sakyas and Vajrācāryas are unequivocally Buddhist.
Sākyas and Vajrācāryas have started to behave in some degree like an ethnic group defined by their Buddhism.