Cultural exchange

Born in Istanbul, Cansu has always been driven by a desire to explore diverse cultures through travel and the study of philosophical and mystical texts, shaped by her upbringing in the Sufi tradition.

As usual, February has experienced a plethora of cultural and other events. These included performances by the Auroville Choir, an international conference on the revival and promotion of Sanskrit, a four day gathering in Unity Pavilion entitled Toward a Collective Awakening: Experiments in Evolution conceived as a follow-up to the Summit held in Auroville in February 2023 to facilitate consciousness change at a collective, The Auroville Festival – a weeklong festival including discussions on diverse topics and daily cultural performances – the Shakti Kumbh event in Unity Pavilion entitled Regenerative Renaissance of Mother India: Revitalising Bharata Shakti, three conferences on the relationship between spiritual and social life organised by the Pavillon de France, yoga activities, chanting and sound meditation in the Matrimandir Amphitheatre, a chanting and bhajan performance at SAWCHU, and a week of events in Mother’s Flower Garden.

Since 2010, the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture in Auroville’s International Zone has been inviting teenage students from the Tibetan Children’s Village school in Dharamshala to come to Auroville for a cultural exchange program during their winter vacation.

With 55 countries, about 3,000 ethnic groups and about 2,000 languages, Africa is a continent of massive diversity. It is said that the genetic difference between two Africans is often more than the genetic difference between a Chinese and a Czech.

Toranagallu is a remote village in Karnataka, near the ruins of Hampi, the capital of the once mighty Vijayanagara empire. Located in the heart of a high-grade iron ore belt, Toranagallu is home to the Jindal Steel Works, one of the factories of the JSW conglomerate, India’s second largest steel company.

Under this programme, over the past eight years 122 young German volunteers have come to work in Auroville, generally for a period of one year.

With over 210 participating Aurovilians, the Auroville Singing Festival 2014 was doubtless the year’s largest cultural event. Spread over two evenings in October, with Bharat Nivas auditorium bursting at its seams, more than 36 groups and soloists showed their talents.