STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: A national conference on Nalanda Buddhism in the 21st century — challenges and response was held in Ladakh Union Territory on Friday, the organisers said.
The one-day conference was held at CIBS Choglamsar, in Leh district of the UT, to reflect on the foundations, to retell Buddhism’s expansive history and to trace its source, they said.
The national conference was organised by Indian Himalayan Council of Nalanda Buddhist Traditions.
The Himalayan region from Tawang, Sikkim, Lahoul-Spitti, Kinauur, Uttarakhand to Ladakh, are a rich repository of the cultural heritage of Nalanda Buddhist traditions, the organisers said.
For thousands of years, it flourished in these harsh geographical conditions. However, the vibrant living Nalanda Buddhist heritage is in the current times undergoing a rapid transformation in its polity, culture and socio-economic changes leading to strategic challenges in the Himalayan region, they said. Buddhism with cross-cultural relations which is one of the powerful factors of social mobilisation and social stability in the Himalayan region will continue to play a key role in further consolidation of this strategic area of the country, the organisers added. Today, while Buddhism is expanding globally and witnessing important resurgence in some traditional areas, this is not the case throughout much of the Himalayan region where its vibrant presence is under external and internal threats like decline in numbers of monastic and monks, etc, they said.