Pushpa Sundar Tuladhar
Encyclopedia
Pushpa Sundar Tuladhar (1885-1935) was a prominent merchant of Kathmandu and one of the chief donors to the restoration of the Swayambhu
Swayambhu
Swayambhu means Self-manifested or that which is created by its own accord.-Vaishnavism:Based on details in Bhagavata Purana and Matsya Purana, Narayana or Krishna is said to be the Self-manifested Swayambhu form of Brahman as the first cause of creation...

 stupa
Stupa
A stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship....

 in 1918. Swayambhu, a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

, is one of the holiest Buddhist shrines in Nepal and the center of Newar Buddhism
Newar Buddhism
Newar Buddhism is the form of Mahayana-Vajrayana Buddhism practiced by the Newar ethnic community of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. It has developed unique socio-religious elements, which include a non-monastic Buddhist society based on a caste system and patrilinial descent...

. The renovation project was headed by Dharma Man Tuladhar
Dharma Man Tuladhar
Dharma Man Tuladhar was a Nepalese trader and philanthropist best known for the renovation of the Swayambhu stupa in Kathmandu, one of the holiest Buddhist shrines in Nepal. Popularly known as Dhaman Sahu , Tuladhar headed the restoration project which began in 1918 and ended in 1921...

 and completed in 1921.

Early life

Tuladhar
Tuladhar
Tuladhar is a caste from the Newar community of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The name Tuladhar is derived from the Sanskrit words tula and dhar , thus meaning scale-bearer or in general, merchant. Tuladhars belong to the Uray group which includes Kansakar, Tamrakar, Sthapit, Bania, Sindurakar,...

 was born at Asan
Asan
Asan is a city in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. It is located at , bordering the Seoul Metropolitan Area to the north. Asan has a population of approximately 250,000.Asan is known for its hot springs and is a city of spas....

 Dhalasikwa in Kathmandu, the eldest among two sons and three daughters of father Shubha Sundar and mother Mohan Maya Tuladhar. The Tuladhars were hereditary merchants and owned a business house in Lhasa
Lhasa
Lhasa is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau, after Xining. At an altitude of , Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world...

 known as Ghorasyar. They conducted trade between Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

 and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, transporting merchandise over the Himalaya by mule caravan. This trade route forms part of the Silk Road
Silk Road
The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...

. The family also maintained a business office in Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

, India. The firm was named Pushpa Sundar Kula Ratna and it was located at 401/1 Upper Chitpur
Chitpur
Chitpur is a neighbourhood in north Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sometimes, the entire area along Chitpur Road is referred to as Chitpur, although the various localities have distinctive names....

 Road. Tuladhar divided his time between Kathmandu, Lhasa and Kolkata. He married Dhan Maya Tuladhar around 1916 who bore him three sons.

Contributions

Tuladhar was a devout Buddhist and made large donations to renovate Buddhist places of worship. The renovation of 1918 was the last major project done at Swayambhu until the recent one which was completed in 2010. Pushpa Sundar and his cousin brothers Harsha Sundar and Ram Sundar Tuladhar financed the improvement of the lower portion of the stupa. Under the restoration project, the five Buddha shrines set into the dome were covered with gilt copper, a new statue of Vairocana
Vairocana
Vairocana is a celestial Buddha who is often interpreted as the Bliss Body of the historical Gautama Buddha; he can also be referred to as the dharmakaya Buddha and the great solar Buddha. In Sino-Japanese Buddhism, Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of shunyata or...

 Buddha was installed on the east side, and four new shrines were built to house statues of Tara
Tara
-Religions and deities:*Tara , is a tantric meditation deity in Tibetan Buddhism, actually the generic name for a set of similar bodhisattvas*In Hinduism:*Tara , a Mahavidya of Mahadevi, Kali or Parvati...

.

In 1920, the Tuladhar family funded the refurbishment of the roof of the Jana Baha Temple in Kathmandu. The lower tile roofs on three sides of the pagoda
Pagoda
A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...

 were replaced with roofs of gilt copper. The temple houses an image of Jana Baha Dyah, known in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 as Aryavalokitesvara (Sacred Avalokiteśvara
Avalokitesvara
Avalokiteśvara is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He is one of the more widely revered bodhisattvas in mainstream Mahayana Buddhism....

), a bodhisattva
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

 who embodies compassion
Compassion
Compassion is a virtue — one in which the emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy are regarded as a part of love itself, and a cornerstone of greater social interconnection and humanism — foundational to the highest principles in philosophy, society, and personhood.There is an aspect of...

.

Later years

Following the restoration of Swayambhu, Tuladhar went to Lhasa again in about 1925. In 1935, he came down with dropsy and decided to return home. Tuladhar died on the trade route in Tibet a few days after his caravan departed from Lhasa.
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