Doordarshan's "Sacred Buddhist Dance" - Talk and Film Screening by Benoy Behl

Doordarshan’s “Sacred Buddhist Dance” by Benoy K. Behl - Online Talk and Film Screening.

Saturday, January 16, 2021
9am EST
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Cham-Buddhist Dance. Photograph by Benoy K Behl.jpg

Yogachara Buddhism from Kashmir: In the 4th century, in the region of Kashmir, Asanga and Vasubandhu developed the Yogachara school of Buddhism, which was to travel far and wide. In the 8th century, Guru Padmasambhava who was teaching in Kashmir, took a highly developed form of this Buddhism and its sacred dance to Ladakh, Lahaul-Spiti, Kinnaur, Western Tibet and other places.

This film takes you to a magical land. We go across the great Himalayas, to the high-altitude cold deserts of Ladakh and Spiti. Here the oxygen is scarce in the air and we have to lie down for at least a day to allow our bodies to acclimatize. We go to the land of the dance of liberation of the Lamas. Ladakh: The land of high mountain passes is nestled between the tallest mountains of the world, the Himalayas and the Karakoram Range. Here, eternity is never beyond the vision of man.

The Buddhist faith arrived here in ancient times. It brought with it belief in the harmony of the whole of creation; The belief that the transitory world around is an illusion, called samsara. We must lift the veils of this illusion to see the truth beyond. The truth of our oneness with all that there is. 

The Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh presents a vast and majestic landscape. It has azure blue skies, mountains of unimaginable hues, and bushes of Sia - wild roses that fill the air with their fragrance. The high mountain passes which connect this valley to the rest of the world remain snow bound for half the year. As one can imagine, life is extremely hard. The culture of this region is steeped in the compassion of the Buddhist faith. 

The Cham dance of the lamas signifies the victory of knowledge over ignorance. In Buddhist thought, the greatest evil is the ego. It is that sense of the self which is the greatest illusion that we must lose, in order to gain true knowledge. 

This is the land made pure by Guru Padmasambhava of the Nalanda University more than a thousand years ago. The search for the emancipation of the self continues till today. It is the desire to rise above attachments and the illusions of the material world: a search of which the Cham is an ultimate expression.  

The film has been extensively shot across Ladakh and Spiti by the noted cultural historian, film-maker and photographer Benoy K Behl. 

About the Speaker/Filmmaker:

Behl has taken 53,000 photographs of Asian monuments and art heritage and has made 145 documentaries. His photo exhibitions were held in 74 countries. BBC World News carried three stories about Behl’s work and he has been invited to lecture by many important universities & museums. His book on ‘The Ajanta Caves’ is published by Thames & Hudson, London and is among the best-selling books on Indian art history. His other books include: ‘Buddhism: The Path of Compassion’ on the Buddhist heritage of the world and ‘THE ART OF INDIA, Sculpture and Mural Painting’ in 2 vol, ‘Hindu Deities Worshipped in Japan’, etc. Behl’s films have won several awards at international film festivals. In total, he has made 145 documentaries over the last 44 years. 






Gandhi Center