Conference to explore India’s ancient ties with SCO nations
NEW DELHI: A first-of-its-kind event — a two-day international conference on ‘Shared Buddhist Heritage’ will start on Tuesday in the national capital. The focus will be on India’s civilisation connection with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) nations.
The programme will bring together Central Asian, East Asian, South Asian and Arab countries on a common platform to discuss “Shared Buddhist Heritage”. The SCO country comprises 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), the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology (Kyrgyzstan), the State Museum of the History of Religion (Russia), the National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan, the Belarusian State University and International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University (Myanmar), among others.
The 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.
The aim is to re-establish trans-cultural links, and seek out commonalities, between Buddhist art of Central Asia, art styles, archaeological sites and antiquity in various museums’ collections of the SCO countries.
“The Conference is a unique meeting of the minds, where countries from different geographical regions but with a common thread connecting them based on a shared civilization legacy, strengthened by Buddhist missionaries, will discuss for two days’ various themes, chalking out ways to continue the age-old bonds into the future,” said a statement issued by the Ministry of Culture.