To focus on a Buddhist response to dealing with the most pressing challenges the world is facing, the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), which is part of the Ministry of Culture, will be hosting the first Global Buddhist Summit (GBS) on April 20-21 at the Ashok Hotel.
The IBC, a global Buddhist umbrella body, headquartered in New Delhi along with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of External Affairs, recently held a successful international meet of experts from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) nations on shared Buddhist heritage in order to re-establish trans-cultural links, seek out commonalities between Buddhist art of Central Asia, art styles, archaeological sites and antiquity in various museums’ collections of the SCO countries.
“The motto of the International Buddhist Confederation is to address the global challenges and the issues the world is facing today. The upcoming Global Buddhist Summit in Delhi will be based on Bhagwan Buddha’s teaching of balance way of life. In this Summit Buddhist scholars, Sangh members from across the world will participate”
–Ven Dr Dhammapiya,
Secretary General, IBC
The GBC-2023 is a similar effort towards engaging the global Buddhist hierarchy on matters of Buddhist and universal concerns and to come up with policy inputs to address them collectively.
The theme of the two- day Global Buddhist Summit is “Responses to Contemporary Challenges from Philosophy to Praxis”.
“The motto of the International Buddhist Confederation is to address the global challenges and the issues the world is facing today. The upcoming Global Buddhist Summit in Delhi will be based on Bhagwan Buddha’s teaching of balance way of life. In this Summit Buddhist scholars, Sangh members from across the world will participate”
–Ven Dr Dhammapiya,
Secretary General, IBC
Eminent scholars, Sangha leaders and Dharma practitioners from all over the world will discuss today’s pressing global issues and look for answers in the Buddha Dharma that is based on universal values.
The discussions will fall under the following four themes:
Buddha Dharma and Peace
Buddha Dharma: It will cover theme of Environmental Crisis, Health and Sustainability Preservation of Nalanda Buddhist Tradition: It is here that knowledge and culture flourished of diverse spiritual and philosophical traditions
Buddha Dharma Pilgrimage, Living heritage and Buddha Relics: A resilient foundation to India’s centuries-old cultural links to countries in South, Southeast and East Asia
Religious Traditions that have originated in India are part and parcel of the ‘Ancient Dharma, the eternal way of life’, and the addition of ‘ism’ in Buddhism, coined by Victorian indologists, takes it towards a doctrine and less as a philosophical tradition based on teachings of the Buddha. Hence, it is preferable to use ‘Buddha Dharma’ instead of Buddhism. Buddha Dhamma/Dharma in ancient India made significant contributions towards the development of human civilisation. Its spread worldwide led to a great churning of knowledge and cultures and the flowering of diverse spiritual and philosophical traditions the world over.
“As a main stakeholder, when something happens to the world, we cannot remain out of it. For that reason, we have to do something. We cannot treat things like this as happening to someone else, so it cannot affect us. In this regard, our Government is taking very proactive steps, and we are very grateful for that. Inspired by the Government’s approach, we are organising this event”
—Ven Jangchup Choeden, Deputy Secretary General, IBC
It is expected that the deliberations will explore as to how the Buddha Dharma’s fundamental values can provide inspiration and guidance in contemporary settings which drives technological advancements and consumerism yet grapples with a devastated planet and rapid disenchantment of societies.
The prime vision of the Summit is to look into the teachings of the Buddha that have been continuously enriched over the centuries with the practice of Buddha Dharma. The aim is to set up a forum for the lay Buddhist scholars and Dharma Masters. It will also delve into Buddha’s message for peace, compassion and harmony with the objective of working towards universal peace and harmony, in accordance with the core values of Dharma and produce a document for further academic research, to study its viability for use as a tool for the conduct of international relations on the global stage.
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