Skip to content Skip to navigation

Conference on Assam at Britism Museum

British Museum is going to orgasie conference on  "Assam: textile transmission and the performance of dance" on July 8 - 9 2016 at Stevenson Lecture Theatr, London. This two-day conference will respond to the current exhibition in Room 91, Krishna in the garden of Assam: the cultural context of an Indian textile. It will consider Assamese textiles, trade and contact through the Himalayas from north-east India to Tibet, and the performance traditions that connect the ancient Krishna-related textiles with modern Assamese culture. The conference will include an exhibition viewing and reception.

 ----

Assam: textile transmission and the performance of dance

Friday 8 July & Saturday 9 July 2016 Stevenson Lecture Theatre, British Museum


Friday 8 July

09.30     Registration 18.30

10.00     Introduction
Hartwig Fischer, Director, British Museum

10.10     The Brahmaputra Valley: a corridor in monastic geographicity

Indrani Chatterjee, University of Austin, Texas

10.45     Discussion

11.15     Coffee break

11.45     Trans-Himalayan textiles: Indian woven silks in Tibet
Rosemary Crill, formerly V&A Museum
 
12.45     View of the exhibition
Krishna in the garden of Assam: the cultural context of an Indian textile

13.30 Lunch

14.30 A brief discussion of the traditional woven silk textiles of medieval Assam: lampas, samite, double-weave and damask
Steven Cohen, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford

15.30 Silk, a larger history
Arupjyoti Saikia, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam

15.30 Tea break

17:00  From Lhasa to London: looting during the 1904 Younghusband Expedition to Tibet
Tim Myatt, independent schola

18:30 The dancing monks of Uttar Kamalabari monastery, Majuli Island, led by Dr Bhabananda Barbayan, in a public performance in the Great Court (ends around 20.00)

Saturday 9 July

10.00     Dancing the divine; performing the Nation: Krishna dance in ancient and contemporary Northeast India
Debanjali Biswas and Georgie Pope, both King’s College London – India Institute and Department of Music

11.00     The icons and the accompanying texts woven on the Vrindavani Vastra textile groups and their historical and cultural significations in Assam
Samiran Boruah, The Assam Research Society, and La Maison des Artistes, Paris

12.00     Coffee break

12.30     Staging the Vrindavani Vastra – Q&A session with Bhabananda Barbayan, the choreographer of the dance performance based on the Vrindavani Vastra textile
Bhabananda Barbayan (choreographer from the Uttar Kamalabari monastery, Majuli Island) and Anwesa Mahanta and Arshiya Shethi, both post-doctoral independent researchers

13.30     Lunch

15.00     Threads through Assam – screening of a short film on the story of silk in Assam, directed by Leona Chaliha

15.45     Some further thoughts on the function of the Vrindavani Vastra and Conclusion
Richard Blurton, British Museum

16.30     Dance workshop with monks from Majuli Island

18.00     Drinks reception

 

Find out more..

Author info

AT News's picture

Assam Times Staff. editor@assamtimes.org

Add new comment

Other Contents by Author

Guwahati: – A transformative capacity-building workshop, “Learning from the Land: Participatory Knowledge Harvest from Assam and Meghalaya,” was held at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati Off-Campus, on Friday, June 27, 2025. Organized by TISS in collaboration with UNDP-SGP, the event brought together over 50 NGOs from Assam and Meghalaya to exchange grassroots knowledge and strategies for sustainable land use, agroecological practices, and environmental conservation. The workshop aimed to empower local communities by enhancing skills in biodiversity conservation, land restoration, rural development, sustainability, and climate change adaptation. Prof. Jagannath Ambagudia...
Guwahati: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has accused the BJP-led state government under Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of driving tea garden workers into a severe health crisis, with the average worker’s body weight dropping below 50 kg due to malnutrition and anemia. In a press conference on Wednesday at Rajiv Bhawan, APCC Working President Roselina Tirkey, joined by tea tribe leaders Raju Sahu, Etowa Munda, and Pranjal Ghatowar, condemned the government for neglecting workers’ welfare and plotting to dismantle Assam’s tea industry. Raju Sahu emphasized the alarming health decline, stating that malnutrition and anemia have rendered many tea workers unfit to donate blood...
In Assam, the land of the Brahmaputra, tea gardens, and vibrant indigenous cultures, a troubling pattern has emerged. The state’s push for development—solar plants, thermal power stations, cement factories, and urban restoration—has come at a devastating cost to its original inhabitants, the Khilonjiya. These indigenous communities, including Karbi, Bodo, Dimasa, and Adivasi, are being displaced from their ancestral lands to make way for wealthy industrialists and corporate giants like Adani. While rich outsiders are welcomed with open arms, the Khilonjiya bear the burden of uprooted lives, lost livelihoods, and erased heritage. This blog chronicles few recent land disputes, exposing the...
Guwahati: Expressing concern over the Sivasagar crude-oil well gas leakage in the last few days, a northeast India based forum of graduate engineers have urged both Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) to come clear about the so-called ‘abandoned’ wells, which have the potential to harm human life, property and environment, as the concerned private parties operating such wells often do not come forward to take responsibility.  All Assam Engineers Association (AAEA), in a statement, also appealed to the Union government in New Delhi to hold the concerned ONGC/OIL  officials accountable for any disaster at an oil or gas well after having declared it '...
On May 26, 2025, Gaurav Gogoi, a three-time MP and son of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, was appointed President of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC). His appointment marked a generational shift in Assam’s Congress leadership and was seen as a strategic move to reinvigorate the party ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections. Gogoi’s clean image, recent Lok Sabha victory from Jorhat by a margin of 1.44 lakh votes, and appeal among youth positioned him as a serious contender against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Gogoi's appointment replaces Bhupen Kumar Borah and is backed by a team of working presidents including Jakir Hussain Sikdar, Roselina Tirkey, and Pradip Sarkar....
Assam, a state rich in natural resources, has faced recurring nightmares from its oil and gas industry, with devastating impacts on its people and environment. The Baghjan gas leak of 2020, operated by Oil India Limited (OIL), and the ongoing ONGC gas leak in Sivasagar (June 2025), operated by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), are stark reminders of the human cost of industrial mishaps. This blog post delves into the profound effects on common people in both incidents, compares their timelines for containment, and highlights the urgency of addressing systemic issues to prevent future tragedies. The Baghjan Gas Leak (2020): A 173-Day Ordeal On May 27, 2020, a catastrophic blowout...
The Tai Ahom Indigenous Rights Forum convened its Executive Committee Meeting today at the Tai Educational and Cultural Centre in Boiragimoth, Dibrugarh. The meeting was presided over by Chow Sanjib Rajkonwar, President of the Forum, and saw the active participation of executive members, advisors, and regional representatives from across Assam. The gathering served as a vital platform to deliberate on the strategic direction of the Forum, with a special focus on aligning the movement for Tai Ahom rights with the principles enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) 2007. The Forum reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to advocating for the...
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to accept a plea by All BTC Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU) raising concerns over the state’s “indiscriminate” move to detain and deport suspected foreigners. A Bench of the top court comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Satish Chandra Sharma asked ABMSU to move the the Gauhati High Court. In writ petition, the organisation questioned the growing pattern of deportations by the Assam Government through informal “push back” mechanisms, without any judicial oversight or adherence to the safeguards envisaged by the Constitution.
Guwahati: Rains in Assam have stopped. But the water level of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries have yet to recede rendering over 4 lakh people homeless in as many as 17 districts of the state. In Cachar district alone over 1 lakh been have been rendered homeless because of the 4 day long incessant rains. Sribhumi district also witnessed no less misery of 90,000 people to be followed by Nagaon district where over 65,000 people have been affected. A huge area of Lakhimpur district has come under the surging water after the Ranganadi dam released its excess water pushing thousands of families in brimful misery. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is on a stock taking visit to the...
Lakhimpur: In the early hours of Saturday, around 1 a.m., the water level of the Ranganadi River began to overflow following the release of dam water from the Panyor Hydroelectric Project by the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), located upstream at Yazali in Arunachal Pradesh. The sudden release of water, without any prior warning, submerged vast areas of Assam’s Lakhimpur district, leaving thousands of people in distress. Many residents were caught unaware in their sleep as the floodwaters entered their homes. People fled with only the clothes they were wearing, leaving behind all belongings. The floodwaters swept through 243 villages across the Ranganadi and Naoboicha...