Rakhine province of Myanmar has shared a symbiotic bond with India with regard to language, literature, art, culture and religion. The encounter between Rakhine and eastern India has produced a composite culture, which manifests the mutual reciprocation between the two. There are myriads of archaeological, literary and archival evidences to render the rich heritage of the cross-cultural influences.The One Day International Hybrid Conference on Indo-Rakhine Concatenation over Dhamma held on 15th January, 2021 at RTC, ICCR,, Kolkata organized by Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, India was a landmark endeavour to explore this forgotten phase of history.

 

In the inaugural session, the Guests of Honour Sri Shakti Sinha, Honorary Director, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Policy Research and International Studies, MS University, Vadodara, Distinguished fellow, India Foundation, New Delhi, Non Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore and Sri Gautam De, Regional Director, RTC-ICCR, Kolkata were present. Sri Aridam Mukherjee, Director, Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, India delivered the welcome address. In his, welcome address, Mr. Mukherjee welcomed the distinguished guests and dignitaries present over there. He explained the objective of the conference along with his personal correspondence with the history and cultural traditions of Myanmar.

 

The first academic session entitled Buddhism in Rakhine: Practices and Precepts was a hybrid session. . Dr Nu Mra Zan, Museum consultant and Director-General (Retd.), Department of Archaeology and National Museum, Myanmar, chaired the session. The first speaker of the session was Dr Sumanapal Bhikkhu, Guest Faculty, Department of Pali and Department of Languages, University of Calcutta and Chairman, Bodhi-Nidhi Social Welfare Cultural Association, Kolkata. As a practising monk of the Theravada Buddhist tradition, Dr Bhikkhu discussed the moral principles and organizational norms practiced by the monks in the Rakhine province of Myanmar. He also talked about the history of cultural and ecclesiastical correspondence between the Rakhine province of Myanmar and the Eastern India, especially Bengal.

His presentation was primarily based on the principles of monastic order and the moral codes followed by the Theravada School of Buddhism in Rakhine. The second speaker of the session was Mr. Subham Amin, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sri Ramkrishna Sarada Vidyamahapitha. In his presentation, Mr. Amin talked about the history of cultural correspondence between Bengal and Rakhine and the imperial strategy and orientalist ideology of constructing Rakhine, as the land of the ‘other’ to severe the cultural bond between India and Myanmar. He also pointed out the shifting paradigm of the perspective of the Bengali middle class ‘Babus’ about Rakhine in the colonial period. The last speaker of the session was Mr. Win Kyaing, Principal, Field School of Archaeology, Myanmar. As a professional archaeo0logist and expert of the history of Myanmar, Mr. Kyaing delivered an elaborated presentation on the historical development of different Buddhist traditions in Myanmar as well as the archaeological and scriptural evidences of the correspondence between India and Myanmar. His presentation consists of the principles of Buddhism practised in the monasteries, the role of dynasties to patronize Buddhism, different Buddhist cults present in Myanmar and the living cultural traditions emanated from Buddhism in Rakhine and Myanmar.

 

The presentations were followed by a brainstorming discussion session in which the audiences had a lively interaction with the speakers. At the end, Dr. Nu Mra Zan skillfully summed up the discussions and expressed thanks to all participants and presenters for their participation. In the second academic session entitled Monasteries and Images: Architecture, Style and Iconography, Dr. Bob Hudson, Associate, Asian Studies Programme, University of Sidney, Australia chaired the session. The session consisted of three presentations by Dr. Jacques P. Leider, Ecole francaise of Extreme-Orient, French Institute of Asian Studies, Mr. Ye Myat Lwin, Junior Officer, Department of Ethnic Literature and Culture, Myanmar and Dr Nu Mra Zan, Museum consultant and Director-General (Retd.), Department of Archaeology and National Museum, Myanmar. the audiences were acquainted with the stylistic and iconographic details of the Buddhist monasteries in Rakhine and the rest of the Myanmar. The speakers talked about the technicalities of the architecture of the monasteries as well as the archaeological and scriptural evidences to substantiate the cultural encounter between India and Myanmar. The presentations were followed by a brainstorming discussion session in which the audiences had a lively interaction with the speakers. At the end, Dr. Bob Hudson skillfully summed up the discussions and expressed thanks to
all participants and presenters for their participation.

In the third academic session entitled Rakhine’s Connected History through Ages, .Dr. Jacques P. Leider, Ecole francaise of Extreme-Orient, French Institute of Asian Studies, chaired the session. The session consisted of four presentations by Dr Suchandra Ghosh, Professor, Department of History, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Professor Saw Tun Aung, Professor of Preventive and Community Dentistry, University of Dental Medicine, Yangon and Scholar of Rakhine Culture, Religion and History, Professor Aye Chan, Professor Emeritus, Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan and Dr Shikha Jain, Director, DRONAH and Chairperson, DRONAH Foundation, State Convenor, INTACH Haryana Chapter, Vice President, ICOFORT ISC, ICOMOS, Visiting Faculty, UNESCO C2C, Wildlife Institute of India. The last session was a mixed bag in which the presenters shared their views on different aspects of the history of the Rakhine region and the journey of Rakhine from tradition to modernity.

This session was also followed by an interactive session between the presenters and the audiences. At the end, Dr. Jacques P. Leider skilfully summed up the discussions and expressed thanks to all participants and presenters for their participation. The conference itself turned out to be an occasion to acknowledge how even today the indelible truss of religion and cultural legacies continues to countries and communities invariantly.