A Thousand Years’ Journey

Submitted by the Event Organizer

‘A Thousand Years’ Journey – Story of Stolen Gods’ is an original Bharatanatyam dance-theater production that tells the extraordinary story of a thousand-year-old bronze idol of Nataraja from Tamil Nadu, India. Through evocative movement, music, and multimedia, the production reimagines the idol’s journey across centuries — from its creation using lost-wax method, to its consecration in a temple, to its worship by generations of devotees, to its theft, displacement, and eventual appearance on the global auction block. A Thousand Years’ Journey is narrated through the voice of the idol itself — an eternal witness to devotion, artistry, violence, longing, and resilience.

At once historical and urgent, A Thousand Years’ Journey shines light on the global trafficking of sacred art and its impact on cultural identity. It asks: what happens when a living deity is uprooted from its community and turned into a collectible? Where, truly, does such art belong?

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