New Delhi: The two-day international conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on “Shared Buddhist Heritage” concluded on Thursday in New Delhi. Its focus was on India’s civilizational connection with the SCO nations.
The conference was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and DoNER Shri G.K Reddy with the Minister of State for Culture and External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi and the Minister of State for Culture and Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal.
The delegates present were from Russia, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Bahrain, Myanmar, United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan. Leading India experts also participated. On the occasion G. K Reddy said that the conference highlighted Buddhist common heritage among nations signifying civilizational connections, a good basis to build upon stronger and deeper bonds amongst our countries.
He also said that Buddhism with its profound vision of eternal harmony in the world has spread far and wide and it touched the lives of inhabitants in all the SCO countries centuries ago. Today, we have all gathered here, at a first-of-its-kind conference, because of this underlying link that binds us. The purpose of this Conference is to renew transcultural links and shared histories between the nations gathered here, the Minister explained.
Addressing the participants, Arjun Ram Meghwal said that the teachings of Buddha about self-realization and self-examination are very relevant for the 21st century also. Buddhism is not only a part and parcel of Indian culture but finds a place in global culture because of its universal and value-based teachings.
The Minister suggested that the SCO countries should take up programmes and projects on shared Buddhist heritage which binds all together. He also suggested making Buddhist manuscripts in Pali to be translated into a common language for SCO countries and will make them accessible to all the countries.
In her address,Meenakashi Lekhi said that heritage and history connect all the SCO countries. She also said that Lord Buddha talked about value-based living which is essential for our co-existence. SCO members are connected by Buddhist philosophy which can make SCO a formidable force in terms of ethics and value system, the Minister added.
Lekhi also said Buddhism has spread across the region through trade-route and monastic caravans across the route and the ancient university of Taxila (Pakistan). The existence of universities was the element of absorption to engage students to learn Buddhist art and archaeology.
"This value system and value-based needs with our existence as people, as a society, as countries and as organization; this aspect of the SCO will provide it an important direction. King Ashoka is credited with remaking the Mauryan Dynasty from a war machine into a society of tolerance and non-violence, based on Buddhism. This session binds us virtually also to other countries", she noted.
The international conference, a first of its kind, under India’s leadership of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) was 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).
It was a rich treasure trove of historical evidence on Buddhism that came out in all presentations clearly of the participating countries. Excavations of ancient sites, collections in museums, monasteries, stupas and artefacts retrieved over the years, were a testimony to the incredible expanse that Buddhism had spread to in ancient times. So far, just a fraction of its richness the world had seen, most of it still remained underground, waiting to be excavated.
In the Buryatia region of Russia, said Dr Nonna Alfonso, Curator of the Central Asian Art collection at the State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow that the museum has a significant collection of Buddhist objects: thangka icons, miniature paintings, sculptural and relief images, altar decorations, ritual attributes and ritual weapons, amulets and caskets. The same objects were still found in modern Buddhist temples in Buryatia. There was a distinct connection to India, such as, “The terracotta clay items of the 16th century are very similar to the icons found in Madhya Pradesh.”
Pakistan’s Swat Valley was a treasure house for Buddhist archaeologists. It is believed there were 1,000 monasteries in this region, said Dr A. Imran Shauket, Advisor to Pakistan Tourism Coordination Board and a promoter of the Buddhist heritage of Pakistan. He also referred to various legends mentioning Guru Padmasambhava’s footprints in this area.
The Peshawar Museum houses several scripts in both the Sharda and Pali languages, inviting Indian scholars, he said adding “the doors were open to Indian scholars to study these and decode them, as well as visit Buddhist sites in Pakistan. He also offered to organize exhibitions on Gandhara and Swat excavated findings around the SCO countries.
Many of the Buddhist sites had been destroyed over the past several decades. The army too had blown up stupas in the NWFP’s Kyber region but now defacing or destroying artefacts has become a major offence in Pakistan. However, the developers were moving faster than the excavators or archeologists, he added.
Speaking on the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, (the thousand Buddha caves), Dr Shengliang Zhao, formerly, Director of the Dunhuang Research Academy showed many slides that highlighted the influence of Indian Caitya on the caves and their art work in the region. Providing examples, he said the central pillar in the cave 482 of Mogao was influenced by Ajanta’s cave number 10.
Similarly, with the influence of Mathura sculptures of the standing Buddha, his clothes were seen in the Binglingsi caves. There were references to cross borders influences. A cross-ankled Bodhisattva from the Museum of Art Tokyo had influenced the Bodhisattva’s statues of Northern Liang cave and in Northern Wei caves but in fact, the statue in Japan was actually a replica of an Indian one.
So was the case of Gandhara statutes of Bodhisattva from Tokyo influencing the ones in the caves in China. Ajanta cave- painting techniques also influenced the paintings of murals in the Dunhuang complex. Some influences were traced to Mesopotamia and ancient Greece too.
Dr Zhao said the Dunhuang culture was originally a Buddhist culture and Buddhism came from India, though developed in China for a long time. Due to the prosperity and development of the Silk Road, the continuous exchange of Eastern and Western cultures has left an extremely rich heritage in Dunhuang. We can see not only cultures of India and China but also Central Asia, West Asia, and even ancient Greece and Rome.
Venerable Bhaddanta Dr Candamukha of Myanmar, steering the discussion to contemporary times pointed out that it was through Buddhism people developed all over the world. What remains of that rich development now, only archeological sites on those lands.
The Buddha prescribed Dharma to be enshrined and experienced within the heart. This was then inscribed and portrayed in Buddhist Art. This is all that remains as physical evidence showing that there was a Buddha, and that your ancestors had practiced Buddhism on these very lands. The only historical evidence to remind us of Buddha’s humanism.
“Buddhism is like a banyan tree; its roots firmly in India while the branches spread to Central Asia, China, Far East and in the Indian Sub-continent,” said Prof. Anupa Pande, Pro Vice Chancellor of the National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology (NMI), summing up the sentiments expressed by all participants.
Summarizing the 2-day deliberations, the keynote speaker Prof. K Warikoo, founder of the Central Asian Studies Programme at the Jawaharlal Nehru University noted that the participants were unanimous in their observation that Buddha's teachings were universal and non-sectarian. The Buddha had shown the middle path that was very relevant in these stressful times. This needed to be preserved in the right spirit. There was an urgent need to preserve and restore the remnants of the rich Buddhist heritage currently in ruins in parts of Central Asia.
The experience of the Dunhuang Cultural Complex in China shows that the murals and the artefacts have been restored well, and this should be taken as a model to develop Buddhist sites whether in India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
There was an urgent need to preserve and popularize the Buddhist legacy among the younger generation. The steps in this direction were to introduce audio-visual documentaries, books and chapters for school and college course books.
