New Delhi: India is all set to host the SCO Conference on shared Buddhist Heritage starting from March 14, till March 15 at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The focus of the conference will be on India’s civilizational connection with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) nations. The event, a first of its kind, under India’s leadership of SCO (for one year, from 17 September, 2022 till 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 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 in Kyrgyzstan, the State Museum of the History of Religion in Russia, the National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan, the Belarusian State University, and the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University in Myanmar, among others.
The two-day program 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). Several 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 Conference aims 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 who played a major role in integrating various cultures, communities, and regions in the entire Indian subcontinent and Asia will discuss for two days’ various themes, and chalk out ways to continue the age-old bonds into the future.
