Nepalese book with feathers on cover

[diwakar acharya]

Dear Allen,

I guess these feathers are of the sacrificed birds, certainly of more than one, and most likely from the head or neck. They must be attached there together with a piece of flesh or clots of blood. In Nepal, particularly the KTM valley, one can even find the upper part of a buffalo skull together with horns nailed on the temple-walls of the fierce goddesses or gods. The 'sacred' book of power, being one of the object of devotion, also can receive such offers, I think. 

Diwakar Acharya 



> Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:57:37 -0500
> From: athr at LOC.GOV
> Subject: Nepalese book with feathers on cover
> To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> 
> Someone came round today and showed us a Nepalese thyasapu (contents stotras, yantras, mantras, medical prescriptions, and 6 or 8 color illustrations looking more 'Buddhist' in content than the apparently 'Hindu' oriented text.  No comments on the relations of the two in Nepal, please; that's why the scare quotes.  Anyway, it had feathers on the cover, rather unattractive ones to my taste.  I find it hard to believe they are there for aesthetic reasons.  Sam Fogg in London offers a somewhat ms: < http://tinyurl.com/ap4xra >.  Does anyone know what this is for?
> 
> Allen
> 
> 
> 
> Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.
> Senior Reference Librarian
> Team Coordinator
> South Asia Team, Asian Division
> Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 150
> 101 Independence Ave., S.E.
> Washington, DC 20540-4810
> tel. 202-707-3732; fax 202-707-1724; athr at loc.gov
> The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress.

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