Ladakh: A Cradle of Buddhist Culture

Speaker: Benoy Behl

August 29, 1997 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

Benoy Behl, who has been closely documenting different aspects of Indian art and culture both in India and abroad, has carefully and accurately for the first time photo­-documented the glorious paintings of most of the important monasteries in Ladakh. Many of these paintings are unpublished before and are a large body of art, the study of which will open the doors to a fresh look at the development of Asian Buddhism, as well as its debt to Indian philosophies and artistic traditions.

The gap which has always remained is between the Buddhism and Buddhist art of India as seen at various sites of the rest of Asia. The recent detailed documentation done in numerous monasteries of Ladakh reveals a marvellous crucible of ideas, philosophies and artistic themes and shows us the cradle of the Buddhist art which is then to be found in many countries of Asia.