Ha Bahal (Ratnakar Mahavihar)

Ha Bahal, formally Shri Lakshmi Kalyana Varma Samskarita Ratnakar Mahavihar, is the fifteenth of Patan's traditional eighteen principal bahals. Its full Sanskrit name — roughly 'The Auspicious, Fortunate, Refined Jewel-Ocean Great Monastery' — hints at its old prestige.

Ratnakar Mahavihar holds a distinction found in no other Patan vihara: it is the official residence of the Kumari of Patan, the living goddess who embodies the divine feminine in Newar tradition. Its congregation is unusual too — where most bahal sanghas mix Shakya and Vajracharya families, Ratnakar Mahavihar's is composed exclusively of Vajracharyas, the priestly rank of Newar Buddhism. The community is led by a council of ten elders, the senior of whom carries the title Chakreshwore, and the duty of tending the shrine (Dyopala) rotates among members in roughly fortnightly turns. By tradition, the eleventh-century Tibetan translator Marpa Lotsawa is said to have studied here on his passages between India and Tibet.

The bahal has kept its Buddhist art, architecture and ritual life with remarkable fidelity; the courtyard holds important stone and metal sculpture, and the monastery stays at the centre of Patan's religious calendar — most visibly when the Kumari appears in public during the city's festivals.