Dharamshala: Tibet Policy Institute, the research wing of Central Tibetan Administration concluded its flagship conference of Young Indian Scholars on Tibetan Studies here at the Sarah College for Higher Tibetan Studies on Thursday.
Over the course of the three-day conference, Professors, Assistant Professors and scholars representing 13 universities across India deliberated and shared their research approaches with TPI research fellows within the broad field of India-Tibet relations and contemporary Tibetan issues.
The conference featured presentations on research papers on topics such as Adopted Motherland: The bond of Tibetan refugees with India; Indo-Tibetan Relations in Dehradun: Case of Guru Chela or journey of Mutual Dialogue; Implications of Ramayana in Indo-Tibet interactions; Crime against Humanity: narrative of Tibetan and Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees.
A major highlight of the conference was the one and half hour long meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama during which the delegates discussed the role of youth in the revival of ancient Indian tradition, ancient ties between India and Tibet and challenges facing Tibet vis-à-vis China.
Addressing the valedictory ceremony, Geshe Lhakdor, Director of Library of Tibetan Works and Archives said the India-Tibet relation is best described as one of Guru-Chela.
“It is essentially the Guru Chela relationship which His Holiness the Dalai Lama very fondly talks about. The Sanskrit word Gu means ignorance and Ru means remover of the ignorance. Thereby India is the remover of ignorance for Tibetan people. So you can clearly see the depth of the relationship.”
He argued that the greatness of India must be shown through its soft power, not hard power.
“The precious teaching of Buddha is unfortunately lost in this country. It is high time that our younger Indian generation shows zeal and enthusiasm to get this wisdom back,” he said.
He urged the young scholars to explore, study and equip themselves with the ancient Indian wisdom which he described were “inner resources”. “Then India can really be incredible in the true sense of the term.”
Director Tsering Yangkey, TPI, congratulated and thanked the intellectual gathering on their participation in the first-ever Conference of Indian scholars on Tibetan Studies.
Proposing the vote of thanks, Deputy Director Tenzin Lekshay said, “I thank His Holiness the Dalai Lama for sharing his vision with our participants this morning. We thank the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the honour and privilege.”
He added, “The Tibet Policy Institute aims to organise similar Conference of Young Indian scholars in future through collaboration with different universities and institutes. This is the first of a kind initiative led by TPI and we assure that this not the last.”
“I ask our young gurus here to go back and remove the ignorance of other young gurus who are in your institutions.”
The conference was attended by 22 participants comprising of Professors, Assistant Professors, PhD and M Phil from 13 different universities and institutes like Madras University, Saheed Kshudiram College of West Bengal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Indian Institute of Technology of Madras, Nalanda University, South Asian University, Delhi University, Punjab University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies of New Delhi, and Banaras Hindu University.