War wounds run deep. The third president of the Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist association with more than 12 million members across the world, Daisaku Ikeda was on a visit to India and Southeast Asian countries in 1961. Throughout his travel across the battlefields of Burma (now Myanmar), where he had lost his elder brother to the Second World War, one thought refused to leave him: what could be done to help humanity break free from the shackles of war and what could act as the glue that keeps it together, transcending borders. The Japanese national found his answer in cultural exchange through music and the performing arts, and thus was born the Min-On Concert Association in 1963.

(Above and below) Folk dance performances organised by Min-On Concert Association