As a follow up to conservation activities, ITRHD has decided to set up an Academy for Management and Conservation of BUDDHIST RURAL HERITAGE as no such institute exists in the country and furthermore will attract students and scholars from Buddhist countries.
The Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development set up in2011 as an NGO under the Chairmanship of SK Misra, former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister has two basic objectives- documentation and conservation of rural heritage and linking it with rural development. Rural development encompasses women’s empowerment, preservation of craft and music traditions, development of rural infrastructure, primary education for the deprived, youth activities, skill development and promotion of rural tourism. Several projects have been undertaken for not only documentation of rural heritage in selected districts of UP and Kerala but major conservation of historic and heritage sites in Jharkhand and Haryana have either been completed or are in progress. The XVth Finance Commission in their report to the Government recommended that 4 major conservation projects in Punjab and Haryana at a total cost of Rs 38 crores be taken up and implemented by ITRHD.
To carry the idea of an Academy forward, an International Conference is being planned in the winter of 2025 to which scholars and experts from India and abroad will be invited to advise on various issues relating to the setting up. The details are as follows:
1) India is the birthplace of Lord Buddha, and has many significant sites associated with his life and teachings that are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which are revered by Buddhist and lay people alike, throughout the world. However, there are also many other sites, particularly in rural areas, that are also associated with Lord Buddha, and the spread of Buddhism, some known and others yet to be revealed, that are important but are unprotected, and therefore being obliterated, either on account of the ravages of time or the imperatives of modern development. Many of these sites are still venerated, while the others have a complex social and cultural relationship with local, national and international societies. Seen through the lens of contemporary political economy, however, their continued significance has the latent potential for recovering their meaning, which could contribute productively to benefit the welfare of local societies.
2) Buddhist theology already attracts substantial attention, and the well-known buildings associated with Buddhism have been professionally documented and their elements and features widely memorialized. However, a similar disciplinary attention has not been applied to understand the building culture that produced these much-admired buildings and artefacts. By focusing on the unprotected heritage sites, this conference expects to develop new strategies to recover this knowledge through processes that cannot be considered when professionals or scholars engage with legally protected architectural heritage. Inter alia, these innovative processes of engaging with unprotected heritage hopes to contribute to the second important objective of the conference, which is to pursue ITRHD’s vision to establish a Rural Heritage Conservation and Development Training Institute to train crafts people, professionals and associated civil society interlocutors to engage in, and promote, the conservation and development of rural heritage and sites to benefit local societies. The objective of this Training Institute would be to prepare appropriately trained personnel in different disciplines to deal with the vast numbers of unprotected, often undocumented Buddhist heritage that are present in the rural hinterlands of the country.
3) It is with this background that ITRHD proposes to organize an international conference and invite domain experts from several disciplines to contribute to the conservation-oriented development of Unprotected Buddhist Heritage and Sites. The focus on Buddhist heritage and sites emanates from both its core concern to link heritage and development as a preferred strategy to alleviate rural poverty and underdevelopment, and the need to simultaneously resurrect the unprotected Buddhist heritage and sites in the country of its origin.
4) The decision to make it an International Conference is based on addressing two pragmatic policy goals. First, substantial Buddhist heritage exists in South and Southeast Asia and there would be considerable mutual benefit to engage in an international dialogue on the subject. There are well regarded experts in Europe and the USA, and international institutions like UNESCO, The Getty Foundation, The World Monument Fund and the Helen Hamlyn Trust, among others, who could also contribute substantially to this dialogue. Second, it aligns with the Government’s policy to encourage collaboration or partnership with neighbouring countries with whom India shares cultural affinity.
5) ITRHD is partnering with four institutions to organize the conference, each with a strong stake in its outcome.
1. International Buddhist Confederation (IBC). IBC, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, is a global umbrella Buddhist organization with its headquarters in New Delhi. It was accorded recognition as a “Cultural Organization with National Presence” by the Ministry from where it receives an annual grant.
2. The Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar, UP-201312 (GBU). GBU has been designated as a Centre of Excellence for Buddhist Studies and its objectives align with those of the conference. It has a strong infrastructure in their campus to host international conferences and has a diverse student body with several international students, and a faculty actively associated with both national and international institutions and individuals.
3. School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi (SPAD). SPAD is an Institute of National Importance under an Act of Parliament and the Department of Conservation Studies is a pioneering centre in the field of heritage management. It will contribute to develop the pedagogic and curricular contents of the conference and translate its objectives into operational strategies in consonance with the National Education Policy by undertaking site-specific studios as case studies.
4. Dharma College, 2222 Harold Way, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA and the International Buddhist Association of America (DC). DC will contribute to expand the network of scholars, funders and well-wishers to support the objectives of the conference.
5. The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and its Institute of Archeology (IoA) are key interlocutors to take the objectives of the conference forward. The ASI is a venerable national and international institution and the premier agency of the Government of India to safeguard Monuments and Sites designated as Monument of National Importance and has a wide network of heritage sites under its care and an equally extensive cohort of professional expertise, while the IoA is widely respected to impart technical knowledge and expertise and conduct research to fulfil its mandate, therefore their guidance and support would be essential to ensure the success of the conference.
6. The broad themes identified for the Call for Papers for the Conference are:
a) Developing Architectural knowledge of Buddhist architectural culture, including materials, decorative arts, etc.;
b) Buddhist heritage in other countries and the problems being faced in conservation and management;
c) Tourism and its linkages particularly with Buddhist heritage, heritage routes already identified and new ones that could be developed;
d) Buddhist sites in India, particularly in rural areas, and the professionals and scholars both national and international associated with them, and the problems they face, etc.;
e) Buddhist decorative art experts who could contribute to the Conference and later for skills development training at the ITRHD Institute;
f) Training programmes required for the ITRHD Rural Heritage Conservation and Development Training Institute including its curriculum and pedagogy.
On the occasion of the conference, the organisers will offer delegates and participants package tours to Buddhist Centres in India.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sujit Sanyal functions as Director, HARTS and Youth Affairs for Indian trust for Rural Heritage and Development. He has spent over 47 years in advertising, authored books and teaches Brand Communication. He runs Kahaani Koncerti, a digital platform on culture activism.
