COLOMBO (Staff Report) – Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Hon Ranil Wickramasinghe inaugurated an expo for the most Sacred Relics of Lord Buddha brought from Pakistan, in an impressive ceremony at Temple Trees.
A large number of senior monks/religious scholars, Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Hon Karu Jayasuriya, Senior Government Ministers, high level government officials, Secretary Heritage Pakistan Mohsin Haqqani, Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan to Sri Lanka, Dr Sarfraz Sipra, Curator of Taxila Museum as well as officers of the High Commission attended the inauguration.
The sacred relics include two bone relics of Buddha, a golden casket containing the relics and a stone reliquary in the shape of a stupa. They are part of Taxila Museum’s collection, one of the most important archaeological sites in Asia.
The holy relics will be in Colombo for a 4-day public expo from the 21st to 24th May 2016. After that the relics will be taken to Gampaha (25-26 May), Kurunegala (27-28 May), Kalutara (29 May-1st June), Ratnapura (2-3 June), Galle (04-05 June), Matara (06-07 June), Hambantota (08-09 June), Moneragala (10-11 June), Badulla (12-13 June), Ampara (14-15 June), Polonnaruwa (16-17 June), Anuradhapura (18-19 June) and Kandy (20-21 June). Afterwards, the relics will be brought back to Colombo on 22nd June 2016.
