Past Programs
Buddhism - 2008
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003
Thangkas of Andy Weber Read Transcript
05/10/2008
The ritual painting and use of Thangkas is a Tibetan Buddhist speciality, which might have roots in the earliest legends about depicting the Buddha. Andy Weber, who trained as a Thangka painter in the 1970s, has his Thangkas hanging in museums and private collections, as well as in the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.
Lost Buddhas Found Read Transcript
14/09/2008
A surprise 1996 discovery of a mass burial of Buddhist sculptures in the Shandong Province of China is the basis of an exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. But these Buddha and bodhisattva statues are unusual in many ways, including their remarkable preservation, as Professor Helmut Brinker from the University of Zurich explains.
Anna and the King Read Transcript
17/08/2008
Anna, the 19th century governess to the King of Siam's harem, was famously depicted in the Broadway musical and Hollywood film, The King and I. But that story was tame by comparison to the real life of Anna Leonowens, who invented her past and then went on to become a world renowned lecturer, Sanskritist, and social reformer living in Australia, the US and Canada.
The Origin of the Dalai Lama
06/07/2008
The institution of the Dalai Lama - the Buddhist 'Pope' of Tibet - has a history that goes back at least to the 12th century, but Buddhist myth traces the origin of the Dalai Lama to a Brahmin boy who met the Buddha under the Bodhi tree. Professor of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, Robert Thurman, traces the unusual history of the Dalai Lama.
King Asoka Read Transcript
30/03/2008
He was the ancient king of India who converted to Buddhism and initiated a sweeping moral reform. Legends of Asoka are numerous but it's only in the last century that his real history has become known as historian of Sanskrit literature at the University Texas, Patrick Olivelle, explains.
Sze Yup Temple Read Transcript
10/02/2008
It recently sustained a serious fire but during Chinese New Year, the Sze Yup Temple in Sydney's Glebe is a hive of activity with Chinese of all backgrounds coming to pray to the god Kwan Ti.
The Traditionalists Read Transcript
13/01/2008
Melbourne in the 1950s was home to a small group of intellectuals led by poet Harold Stewart. They championed the ideas of religious and artistic traditionalism as promoted by Rene Guenon and Ananda Coomaraswamy.
