'Preserve ancient cultures'

NAGPUR: “Preservation of ancient traditions and cultures is the need of the hour at present. We should all come together on a single platform to accomplish this task,” said Sam Dong Rimpoche, prime minister of Tibet in exile at Dharamshala, at the inauguration ceremony of the third international conference and gathering of elders of various religions and cultures. Rimpoche was the chief guest for the function on Sunday.

The five-day event has been organised by the Nagpur branch of International Centre for Cultural Studies and World Council of Elders of Ancient Traditions and Cultures. The theme of the conference is “Renaissance of the Ancient Traditions and Cultures: Challenges and Solutions”. Chief of Rashtra Sevika Samiti Pramilatai Medhe presided over the function.

Speaking about the importance of preserving ancient cultures, Sam Dong Rimpoche said, “A world without culture and tradition will be nothing more than a crowd of people with no roots, where co-existence would not be possible. Culture and tradition distinguish human beings from rest of the beings on this planet.”

“Any custom or habit that has been followed over the years cannot be called tradition. There are three aspects which characterise tradition. It has to be a process, thought, idea or philosophy that has to come from a divine source and be revealed by an authentic messenger from the source or an enlightened person who has seen the reality. It must be verifiable by common sense and logic,” he said.

Shedding light on the roots of culture, he added, “It is part of a process. First, there is the ‘prakriti’ or nature, which is then cultivated constructively to give rise to ‘sanskriti’ or culture. However, the degradation of culture ultimately leads to ‘vikriti’ or decay. Culture can be described as the product of cultivating one’s mind. Unfortunately, the word is used in the West with all sorts of negative connotations, like culture of terror or culture of war; whereas in the East culture is still a positive word.”

In her presidential address, Medhe laid stress on the importance of science taking a morally constructive direction.
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