JOIN USThe city was recently witness to a multi-national cultural extravaganza whereby artistes from all over Asia came and preformed. ‘One Asia 2012,’ held annually by the Auroville Foundation, included performing arts, a calligraphy exhibition, workshops, film screenings and talks. Participants included nationals from India, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
The ‘One Asia’ programme was first held in Auroville in 2010. Since then, it has been held in many cities including Delhi. Its founder Jyoti Naoki Eri says, “The famous five dreams of Sri Auroville were broadcast on All India Radio on his birthday August 15, 1947. One of these was that unity in Asia will lead to unity of the world. Other spiritual worldwide have also emphasised the same.”
“To realise this dream, we started the ‘One Asia’ programme. We firmly believe that Unity in diversity will not be manifested through imposition of external rules but has to be discovered within. All Asian countries have long standing traditions in arts and culture which underline the importance of being one with the Supreme. This is the thread which can bind Asia and hence came up with ‘One Asia’ - the Asian intercultural exchange programme.”
Since 2010, a number of musicians, dancers, poets, visual artists, tea ceremony masters, martial artists, Sufi and Zen practitioners and flower-arrangement artists from different Asian countries have participated in One Asia. “We aspire to bring together more of these artistes practicing traditional culture in order to co-create a new and conscious diversity.”
This year, the invoatory note was followed by a flute rendition by Sung-Pil Yang from South Korea and then, a performance by Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar on day two.
On the third day, Bengal’s folk Baul singer Parvathy Baul performed followed by Kamigatamai dancer Keiin Yoshimura and lute player Soh Sugiura from Japan. Chinese lute player Pipa and Grace Gitadelila and Savitri Maya - contemporary dancers from Auroville, also performed at the event.
The event also saw the inclusion of a calligraphy exhibition; a lecture and a workshop; film screenings of Koi Sunta Hai and Chalo Hamara Des by Shabnam Virmani, and Mohammad Yasin.