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On January 18-20, 2013, at Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, the State Women University in Haryana, North India, the International Conference on South-East-East Asia and India: Historical Interconnections in Art, Architecture and Culture of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam was held. It was organized by the English Department of BPSMV and the Centre for Indic-Asian Studies headed by Prof Kapil Kapoor, Delhi, the expert in Indian literature and culture, the author of many monographs in English and Hindi. More than 20 presentations were submitted at the conference by scholars from various institutions of India, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea and Russia. Several honored guests took part in the sessions such as Lord Diljit Singh Rama, a member of the House of Lords, the UK, Ambassador J.C. Sharma, a former Indian diplomat who had worked in Vietnam and Cambodia; Prof M.K. Byrsky, Warsaw University, who had been the first Polish Ambassador to India after the end of the Communist power in Poland (he stayed at BPMSV as a visiting professor); Mr P. Opalinsky, a representative of the Polish Embassy to Delhi. The Russian participant of the conference, Dr Alexander V. Zorin, the IOM RAS, submitted a presentation on Hindu-Buddhist Syncretism in the Trans-Himalaya and Southeast Asia: An Attempt of Comparative Study of Religious Literature of Tibet and Bali, he was also appointed a chairperson for one of the sessions. For convenience of the participants the organizers prepared a special brochure with info on the university, program and abstracts of the papers and a brochure with texts of the national anthems of Cambodia, India, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Moreover, memorable certificates were offered (see below). The book of collected papers is going to be published later. On the final day of the conference, the participants were taken to Kurukshetra, the legendary place of action of the great Indian epics Mahabharata. Particularly, they could see the sacred lake on the place where the Hero Arjuna fought the enemies on the chariot led by the God Krishna and the place where Krishna preached Bhagavad-gita to him. PHOTOS The statue of Bhagat Phool Singh, the founder of the BPSMV 
The symbol of BPSMV 
The main building of the University 
The valedictory inauguration of the conference Gusts of honor perform the lamp-lightning ritual 
The BPSMV’s Vice Chancellor, Dr Pankaj Mittal offers memorial tokens to Ambassador J.C. Sharma (center - Lord Diljit Singh Rama) 
Lord Diljit Singh Rama delivers his speech 
Prof K. Byrsky delivers his speech 
Prof K. Kapoor delivers his speech 
At the sessions Dr Hawon Ku, South Korea, submits her presentation 
Prof Do Thu Ha, Vietnam, submits her presentation 
Prof K. Kapoor and Prof S.K. Bhatia 
Dr A. Zorin and Dr Dh. Singh 
Dr A. Zorin chairs one of the sessions 
S. Bhattacharya submits his presentation 
Dr A. Zorin and the scholars at the English Department, BPSMV 
Trip to Kurukshetra The sacred lake on the place where Arjuna and Krishna fought their enemies 
The Hindu temple on the shore of the lake 
Hanuman Ji 
The Hindu Temple on the place where Bhagavad-gita was preached 
The sacred banyan tree worshipped as a witness of the legendary sermon 
The memorable certificate of a conference participant 
Text and photos by A. Zorin |
