SCO BUDDHIST HERITAGE MEET - INTERNATIONAL
News: SCO
Buddhist heritage meeting starts today
What's in the news?
● More
than 15 scholars and delegates will present research papers on various related
topics as part of the first-of-its-kind international conference on 'Shared
Buddhist Heritage'.
Key takeaways:
● The
event will focus on "India's
civilizational connection with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
nations", according to Culture Ministry officials.
Shared Buddhist Heritage Conference:
● The
two-day event is part of India's leadership of SCO from September 2022 to
September 2023 and will bring together Central
Asian, East Asian, South Asian and West Asian countries on a common platform.
○ At
a time when India is trying to establish its dominance over China "as the
birthplace of Buddhism", the meet assumes importance, with Chinese
delegates also confirming their participation.
Place:
Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
Organized by: The Ministry of Culture,
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the World Buddhist Confederation are organizing
the two-day event (IBC-as a grantee body of the Ministry of Culture).
Aim:
● The
purpose of the conference is to reestablish
cross-cultural linkages and look for similarities among Central Asian
Buddhist art, art movements, archaeological locations, and antiquity in various
SCO nation-state museum collections.
● The
Conference is a unique gathering of minds where nations from various
geographical areas but with a common thread connecting them based on a shared
civilization legacy, strengthened by Buddhist missionaries who played a
significant role in integrating various cultures, communities, and regions in
the entire Indian subcontinent and Asia.
SCO Tourism Ministers Meet:
● India
will host the SCO Tourism Ministers meeting on March 17-18 in Varanasi, designated as the first cultural
capital of the SCO.
● Among
those participating in the two-day conference are experts from China's Dunhuang
Research Academy; Russia's State Museum of History of Religion; and Myanmar's
International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University.