The Buddhist Arts Festival in London

A friend of a friend turns out to be one of the organizers of the "The Many Faces of Buddhism" festival being held in London from April 25 to May 17, so it is even more appropriate than I had thought to promote the event on Counterforces. (I am all too aware that most of my readers, including myself, cannot attend international events on a sudden whim, but I do have regular readers in the U.K.)

The festival of art and performance is being staged in complement to the opening of The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery at the Victoria & Albert, which will be a permanent exhibition of Buddhist sculpture.

Major events will include an April 25 symposium on Buddhism and the Arts Today, exploring topics from the use of the mind in the act of artistic creation to the role of Buddhism in the modernist impulse to integrate art and life. Participants will include Sanford Biggers and Meredith Monk.

The performance of Buddhist dance on May 1, organized by Core of Culture Dance, will feature Noh Theatre from Japan, Vajrayana nuns from Ladakh, Charya Nritya from Nepal, and Kandyan dance from Sri Lanka.

Details are available from a variety of websites, most of which can be accessed from

http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/events/Buddhist_Events/index.html