Two-days international conference on “Shared Buddhist Heritage” is to begin tomorrow in New Delhi. The conference will focus on India’s civilizational connect with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) nations.
The aim of the conference is to re-establish trans-cultural links, seek out commonalities, between Buddhist art of Central Asia, art styles, archaeological sites and antiquity in various museums’ collections of the SCO countries.
An international conference on “Shared Buddhist Heritage” will be held on 14-15 March, with focus on India’s civilizational connect with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) nations 2023 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
The event, a first of its kind, under India’s leadership of SCO (for a period of one-year, from 17 September, 2022 until September 2023) will bring together Central Asian, East Asian, South Asian and Arab countries on a common platform to discuss “Shared Buddhist Heritage”. The SCO countries comprise of Member States, Observer States and Dialogue Partners, including China, Russia and Mongolia. More than 15 scholars – delegates will be presenting research papers on the topic. These experts are from Dunhuang Research Academy, China; Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology, Kyrgyzstan; State Museum of the History of Religion, Russia; National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan; Belarusian State University and International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University, Myanmar, to mention a few.
The two-day programme is being organized by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of External Affairs and the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC-as a grantee body of the Ministry of Culture). A number of Indian scholars of Buddhism will also participate in the event. Participants will also have the opportunity to tour some of the historical sites of Delhi.
One of the natural marvels in the world is the evolution and spread of ideas. Crossing formidable mountains, vast oceans and national boundaries; ideas find a home in distant lands and get enriched with the host cultures. So is the uniqueness of Buddha’s appeal.
Universality of Buddha’s ideas crossed both time and space. Its humanistic approach permeated art, architecture, sculpture and subtle attributes of human personality; finding expression in compassion, co-existence, sustainable living and personal growth.
This conference is a unique meeting of the minds of people from different geographical regions connected with shared Buddhist heritage.
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