Film to explore ancient India's Buddhist links to ASEAN

NEW DELHI: Ancient Buddhist bonds which linked India to South East Asian countries form the subject of a new film and exhibition which seek to strengthen ties with ASEAN nations.

"The entire purpose of the film and exhibition is to create more bonds that linked India with these countries in the past but aren't there now. We have all been turning to the West instead of linking between each other," says historian Benoy K Bahl.

A ninth century stupa in Indonesia, the tallest in the world finds a place in Behl's new film that documents the shared Buddhist heritage of the ASEAN countries.

The Borobudur stupa in Java, is one of the monuments that Bahl has included in his documentary which trails the Buddhist traditions across Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

"European historians have often referred to the stupa as a funerary mount. It was their understanding but it is incorrect. The Borobudur stupa is a profound symbolic representative of the formless eternal," Bahl told PTI in an interview.

Bahl, who returned from a trip to Thailand, Laos and Indonesia, says the exercise of documentation has been backed by the governments of ASEAN nations and India.