Rubin Museum of Art
Yesterday evening, I visited the Rubin Museum of Art. It is a new museum (little over a year in existence) in NYC dedicated to promoting art of the Himalayas and surrounding regions. Bill, a friend of mine, told me about it almost a year ago.I have visited it three times since: First in April, for a premiere of ‘Vajra Sky Over Tibet’, final chapter in Yatra Trilogy of Sacred Journeys throughout the world of Buddhism directed and filmed by John Bush. (I will discuss it later, in my upcoming blog about movies to watch, stay tuned.) The second visit, in October, was to see a slideshow and discussion of a book called ‘Sacred Landscape and Pilgrimage in Tibet - In Search of the Lost Kingdom of Bon‘, written by Charles Ramble and Bon monk Geshe Gelek Jinpa (co-authored by Carroll Dunham). They recounted their journey of traveling through remote Western regions of Tibet, near Mt. Kailash, in search of historical, spiritual and cultural evidence of the Bon religion, the pre-cursor of Buddhism in Tibet, and its long lost kingdom of Zhangzhung. Great photography by Thomas Kelly and interesting talk of Geshe Gelek Jinpa about his childhood, upbringing and monastic education.
And yesterday, I came for the third time, to listen to a presentation about Kashmir and the South Asian Earthquake, another project in the ‘Himalayan Hotspots’ series organized by SAJA and RMA. The panelists were S. Asif Alam and Suleman Din, both journalists, and Ken Bacon, president of Refugees International. I was more than interested to hear what they have to say about the current situation and pace of reconstruction efforts because I will be visiting Kashmir in the fall ‘06, both Indian and Pakistani. In the beginning, they discussed their connections to the region. They also mentioned their struggles to raise funds and media awareness in the U.S. (and compared it to the Tsunami response). Then, Suleman Din reported on his first-hand experiences of anguish and grief among local Pakistani and Indian immigrants while reporting about the earthquake. Ken Bacon, who visited the afflicted areas in December, talked about the efforts of his organization. Mainly, he stressed out complex logistical challenges in providing help and the devastating effects of winter and snow for the relief efforts. He also stated that main reconstruction phase will start in March 2006 and the full recovery is to be expected by 2008 (at least, in economic terms). And lastly, they offered a few ‘candid’ comments about improvements in political dialogue between Pakistan and India* in the aftermath of the earthquake. I only hope that it will lead to de-militarizing of Kashmir and opening it up to more trade and tourism in order to help the local economy. Overall, it was a very stimulating discussion.
* India and Pakistan fought two wars for Kashmir and as recently as in 1999 came close to a nuclear catastrophe, averted only by a direct involvement of the U.S. President Bill Clinton.
