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Cobbett's Wey DFAS is grateful for the support offered by The Farnham Herald.

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.

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CWDFAS is a member of NADFAS