
Cobbett’s Wey DFAS the Farnham evening society
March
2010
Lecture
Journey Across the Himalayas
The
subject for the Cobbett’s Wey Decorative and Fine Arts Farnham Society
March lecture was “Journey across the Himalayas”. After members chatted
over a glass of wine Chairman Maggie Johnston extended her usual warm
and charming welcome to everyone, particularly new members, before
introducing Zara Fleming.
Zara has travelled widely in the Himalayas, which means “Abode of Snow”
and gave members a fascinating insight into life at the top of the
world. She explained that 40-50 million years ago the land mass of
southern India pushed up and created the Himalayas, which extend 2,000
miles from west to east. Both Hindus and Buddhists consider them to be
the sacred abode of the gods. The region is prone to extremes of
temperature, avalanches and earthquakes and the people of the area have
developed a very profound system of beliefs to cope with the climate and
terrain. Merchants and pilgrims took the religion into Tibet, where the
indigenous deities were absorbed. Everywhere and in every country
Buddhism is tolerant of indigenous religions. The people revere the land
in which they live.
The History of Buddhism spans the 5th century BCE to the present,
starting with the birth of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama in Ancient India in
what is now Lumbini, Nepal. This makes it one of the oldest religions
practised today. Starting in the north eastern region of the Indian
Subcontinent, the religion evolved as it spread through Central Asia,
East Asia, and Southeast Asia. At one time or another it affected most
of the Asian continent. The history of Buddhism is also characterized by
the development of numerous movements and schisms among them the
Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions, with contrasting periods
of expansion and retreat.
The
most common forms of art are murals and illuminated scrolls. Although
beautiful, these objects work as a focus of faith. Zara’s lecture was
punctuated by the loveliest slides of the temples and ancient cities. We
were interested to learn that people always circumnavigate the temple
three times before entering. . To survey the history, we need to go back
to the seventh century of the Common Era. At the beginning of that
century, a king from Central Tibet named Songtsen-gampo conquered the
Western Tibetan kingdom of Zhang-zhung and created the first unified
Tibetan Empire. He built the temples we see today. The custom in those
days to unify an empire was for the king to marry princesses from nearby
kingdoms - neighbouring kings were less likely to attack the palaces
where their daughters lived. Emperor Songtsen-Gampo married princesses
from China, Nepal, and Zhang-Zhung. These princesses brought with them
the religions of their native countries. The Chinese and Nepali
princesses brought Buddhist texts and the Zhang-Zhung princess brought
her Bon beliefs. Bon was the Zhang-Zhung native religion. We learned of
the search for good Karma so that people may move up the scale towards
enlightenment, whereas those with bad Karma move down the scale.Zara
showed slides of her journey across the Himalayas to Bhutan, Nepal and
Northern India, In Bhutan religion is part of the people’s daily lives;
every house has a Buddhist shrine. All temples and monasteries are built
to harmonize with the landscape. The monasteries are centres of learning
and it was the tradition that one child from each family went into a
monastery. Zara confided that she became engaged in Bhutan, probably
because she was completely out of breath! Here the earliest faith was
nature worship. Everywhere they harness the elements to pray. Ancient
buildings are still used for funerals or civil as well as religious
administration. One by one the countries in the Himalayas have been
absorbed by India or Nepal since China invaded Tibet. Bhutan is the only
country left. They were so aware of what had happened in Tibet that they
opened to the outside world and joined the UN in the sixties. The King
of Bhutan felt they must preserve their unique culture, which is shaped
by the environment and their religion.
CWDFAS
is a member of NADFAS