08 May 2023, 06:30 pm
Thousand–year Journey of the Kalacakra Tantra and its Reception from Qublai Khan to Xi Jinping
Programme Type
Talks
Venue
Conference Room II, IIC main building

POSTPONED

Speaker: Shri Niraj Kumar who has spent the last seven years translating and writing a new commentary on the Kalacakra Tantra over five volumes, the first of which was published in 2022. A proponent of Pan-Asianism, he has authored Arise, Asia! (2003) and its sequel, Asia in Post-Western Age (2014). He is also a commentator on Sakta Tantra, and the author of Sriyantra and Geophilosophy of India (2014). He was Chief Editor of an encyclopedic work on the Himalayas, Himalayan Bridge (2015)

 Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

 The Kalacakra Tantra is the capsule of Nalanda tradition. It was the last major Buddhist Tantric text written in India during the early 11th century. Though composed in Sanskrit, within a few decades, it influenced the most powerful Tibetan Buddhist clergy. This talk will cover the formative stages and the dynamics in transmission of this Tantra. This talk will cover the formative stages and the dynamics in transmission of this Tantra, and its reception by great political powers during the thousand years of its journey

(Organised by IIC-International Research Division)