Speaking and Lecture Programme
Hilary is an experienced speaker on the philosophy and cultural history of yoga and selected aspects of the wider artistic world. Often focusing on the meeting of ancient and contemporary, she seeks out fresh vision and invites debate around new ideas.
Of interest to both general and specialist audiences, her lectures can be accompanied by film and include 'in-conversation' dialogues and discussions.
Hilary specialises in the philosophy and cultural history of yoga and the cultures and art of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Philosophy & Cultural History of Yoga
Yoga lecture topics include:
YOGA AS LIVING TRADITION
Yoga is a living tradition that has been in existence for over three millennia. Its history is a fascinating story of Indo-European culture as the central tenets of this philosophy are reworked according to political, religious and socio-economic change. This topic is a mosaic of literature, art, sound, body and the mind.
THE YOGA WE DO NOW
Hilary invites you to consider recent research on the threads that shape current yoga practices; their myriad styles have become known as transnational modern yoga. How did we arrive at what we practice now and where are we going with it?
This presentation intersperses lecture, film and discussion. It is thought provoking and those who have attended it, often find it produces surprises and divergences from some commonly held notions.
SMELL OF THE EARTH
based on: The sadhaka’s journey - visual imagery of the meditating mind in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra
'OM' : SOUND, VOICE, POETRY AND IMAGE
CULTURES AND ART OF ASIA, AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Culture and art topics include:
SACRED SCENTS AND AROMATICS
JEWELS OF THE MIND, THE BODY ADORNED, TRADE AND DESIRE
GARLANDS OF MELODIES
- based on: Ragamalas – pictures of sound
LOTUS, SUN AND YOGI: FROM THE INDUS TO ISLAM
based on: The Lotus and the Rose
GOLD, COFFEE, SPICES AND SCENT: flavours and aromatics for the soul
based on: Strings of Pearls and Seas of Sapphire
PRECIOUS STONES OF LOVE AND WAR
based on: Mughal India
LIGHT IN ISLAM
based on: the Light verse of the Qur’an, Veils of Light, Hadith of the Veils and the Crystal of Paradise through the eyes of Islam’s philosophers.
COURTLY LIFE AND INSPIRATION IN THE DECCAN SULTANATES
based on: the uniqueness of Sultanate culture, cosmopolitan trade in jewels and textiles, Urdu literature, ragamala, yoginis, tobacco, painting and extraordinary women and men – Hayat Bakhshi Begum, Chand Bibi and Malik Ambar.
FOOD AND HOSPITALITY IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD
based on: traditions of ancient Mesopotamia and Hijaz, Baghdad 9th C, Persian cuisine, Hyderabadi cuisine; Ottoman kitchen of Topkapi Palace; dates, locusts, rice, paan, wine and flavours; stories of cooking pots and water pitchers; feasts, travellers and guests.
THE EXPRESSION OF ISLAM IN ART
EGYPT FROM LATE ANTIQUITY TO THE MAMLUKS
IVORIES AND TULIPS: ARTS OF ISLAMIC SPAIN AND OTTOMAN TURKEY
Gold, timber, spice and ivory trades; sea trade and historic coastal ports of West, East and North Africa; over-land trade routes, exchange centres and products of the interior. Queen of Sheba; Ibn Battuta. Ivories as artefacts in the emerging culture of Islam in Spain; changing nature of the western Islamic world from mediaeval to Renaissance and early modern in the decorative arts of ivory, glass, ceramic lusterware; Hispano-Moresque glassware; floral language; the rose and the tulip. Seville, Venice, Istanbul. Beauty, romance, taboo and obsession. Ottoman Turkey and the Tulip Era (art, architecture, comestible containers and display, textiles). Flower power: overt and hidden.
TEA CULTURES OF INDIA: A BITTER-SWEET BOUQUET
Camellia sinensis, its ecological niche, peoples and consumption; Chinese culturation in art and literature, production, preparation and beverage; northern Chinese steppe, Central Asian and Himalayan tea cultures; southern Chinese tea cultures (Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou); tea and horse trade route; tea bricks; Assamese indigenous tea culture. Long distance colonial trade and tea cultures (courts of Portugal and Holland; British); socialisation of tea (associations of venue, role of women and family in tea society, public venues, tea drinking paraphernalia and recipes). Trade finance: evasion and avoidance (opium and experimentation with camellia sinensis var.assamica). Tea planters and plantations: Assam, Darjeeling, Nilgiri Hills, Ceylon. East India Company tea marketing and promotion in India; brewing cultures with regional identities (Peshawar, Hyderabad, British colonial). Chai and contemporary ayurvedic spice use.
Contact Hilary if you would like to hold any of the above events; dates for future presentations are included under Events; and join the mailing list to be informed of any future presentations.
