Relinquishing generous gesture, sacred Buddha relics sent to Sri Lanka for the first time in a century

Sri Lanka, April 30: Marking the great deeds of Lord Gautam Buddha, the world bows down respectfully to the ideals of peace and harmony imparted by celebrating it on Buddha Purnima. Renouncing a symbol of generous gesture, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan’s sacred relics of Sarnath are kept for display on the occassion of Vesak (Buddha Purnima) in Sri Lanka.

 

On the auspicious day of Vesak, the Temple Trees will exhibit the sacred relics sent by India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan.

 

Enshrined at the Mulagandhakuti Vihara at Sarnath, the sacred Buddha relics have been sent to Sri Lanka for public veneration during the annual Vesak or Buddh Purnima festival. These relics are being brought from Sarnath in Varanasi and it is going to be a first time that these relics will be kept for public exposition.

 

It will be after a century that the relics were brought to Sri Lanka for the first time. This is only the second time these relics, discovered by British archaeologists in colonial India in 1913 and handed over to the Maha Bodhi Society of India for custody, have left India.

Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya accepted the sacred relics on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka. The Relics will be kept at Temple Trees, the official residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, from April 29 to May 3. President Maithripala Sirisena and PM Ranil Wickremesinghe paid their respects to the relics.

Noting Pakistan and Sri Lanka had a long history of mutual support in difficult times and that the exhibition of sacred relics from Pakistan would strengthen cultural ties between the two nations, Pakistan has sent their sacred relic of Lord Buddha as gesture of honor.

Sacred artifacts from Nepal and Bhutan are to be exhibited at the Buddha Rashmi Vesak Zone, which has been organized by the Gangaramaya Vihara in Hunupitiya and the Prime Minister’s office.

Vesak or popularly known as Buddha Purnima will be celebrated on April 29 this year in Sri Lanka and it is celebrated by Buddhist communities around the world to mark the birth, enlightenment and death of Gautam Buddha.

Sarnath has its own significance in Buddhism as it is the place where Buddha preached his first sermon.