India Taps Potential of Rich Buddhist Heritage

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NEW DELHI, India -- India is tapping the potential of its rich Buddhist heritage by wooing more tourists from East and South East Asian countries. Buddhism originated in India but went on to gain more popularity in other Asian countries.

From a rail station in New Delhi the luxury train, the Mahaparinirvan Express, begins its winding, eight-day journey through three Indian states -- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa.
The passengers on board include a group of tourists from Thailand, who are greeted with garlands and music. At daytime, the train stops at some of Buddhism’s most sacred sites such as Bodh Gaya where Buddha obtained enlightenment, Sarnath, where he gave his first sermon, Varanasi, where he preached and Kusinagar, where he died. 
The train is sometimes delayed by dense winter fog, but the visitors from Thailand say they are satisfied with their spiritual encounter.

Buddha began preaching Buddhism in India more than 2,500 years ago. As a result, some of Buddhism’s most sacred sites - places where he lived and preached are located in India -- although the religion went on became more popular elsewhere in Asia.
Many of these holy spots lie in India’s poorest states which were not easy to access for decades. As a result only the most committed religious tourists made the effort to reach the sites, resulting in relatively few foreign visitors. 
But in recent years, India has been trying to attract more tourists from countries such with sizeable Buddhist populations such as Japan and Thailand and develop what it calls spiritual tourism. 
It has connected key Buddhist heritage sites through a rail network on which the Mahaparinirvan Express plies. And it is trying to improve other infrastructure such as highways and airports for those who want to plan their own visits. 
The head of India’s Association of Tour Operators, Subhash Goyal says the process has begun, but much more needs to be done. “In a lot of areas where hotels and other things need to come up and second is road connectivity, and there needs to be air connectivity connecting all these places with small planes or with helicopters," he said. "If the facilities improve and infrastructure improves, I am sure we can have two to three million tourists, just Buddhist tourists coming to India.”
The government recognizes the need to invest more funds to develop what it calls the “Buddhist circuit.” 
Tourism Minister, K.Cheeranjivi on a recent visit to Tokyo, said India needs more quality, budget accommodation close to prominent Buddhist sites and called on Japan to invest in the hospitality sector.   

It is not just India that is hoping to draw in Buddhist tourists. Passengers aboard the Buddhist pilgrim train are taken via bus across the border to the tiny town of Lumbini in Nepal. 
This town, where Gautam Buddha was born, has been getting a makeover for many years to provide amenities for tourists.

Sharad Pradhan at Nepal’s Tourist Board says so far most of the overseas tourists come via India, but they hope to change that. “We have many tourists coming from Sri Lanka also, there are so many tourists coming from Thailand, Japan also. Now the government of Nepal is opening airport at Lumbini," he added. "So that will be complete within two years so that tourists can directly come to Lumbini.”
In India, states rich in Buddhist heritage have begun reaping a dividend from Buddhist tourism. A decade ago, virtually no foreign tourists went to Bihar, which is among India’s poorest and least developed areas, but also the area where most Buddhist sites are located. Today, Bihar hosts nearly half a million overseas visitors.

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Buddhists, Reconstructing Sacred Tibetan Murals, Wield Their Brushes in Nepal

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LO MANTHANG, Nepal -- Dozens of painters sat atop scaffolding that soared toward the roof of an ancient monastery. With a swipe of their brushes, colors appeared that gave life to the Buddha. Gold for the skin.

<< A local woman worked on a historic mural at Thubchen Monastery in Lo Manthang, Nepal.

They worked by dim portable electric lights. Dusty statues of Tibetan Buddhist deities gazed on. From openings in the roof, a few shafts of sunlight fell through the 35 wooden pillars in the main chamber of the enormous Thubchen Monastery, the same edifice that had awed Michel Peissel, the explorer of Tibet, when he visited a half-century ago.

“In Nepal, no one knows how to do this, so we have to learn,” said Tashi Gurung, 34, a painter participating in what is one of the most ambitious Tibetan art projects in the Himalayas.

Financed by the American Himalayan Foundation, the project is aimed at restoring to a vibrant state the artwork of two of the three main monasteries and temples in Lo Manthang, the walled capital of the once-forbidden kingdom of Mustang. Bordering Tibet in the remote trans-Himalayan desert, Mustang is an important enclave of Tibetan Buddhist culture.

Tibetan leaders, including the Dalai Lama, say their culture is under assault in the vast Tibetan regions ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, which occupied central Tibet in 1951. That, along with the encroachment of modernity, means that the act of preserving or reviving Tibetan art is arguably more important than at any time since China’s devastating Cultural Revolution.

The project in Lo Manthang has stirred debate. Some scholars of Tibetan art assert that the painters in Lo Manthang are altering important historical murals and jeopardizing scholarship by painting new images atop sections of walls where the original images have been destroyed. Those involved in the project argue that residents want complete artwork in their houses of worship.

The project’s director is Luigi Fieni, 39, an Italian who first came to work here after graduating from an art conservation program in Rome. Mr. Fieni and other Westerners have trained local residents to work on the art, creating a 35-member team that includes 20 women and one monk (though there was initial reluctance from local men to tolerate the women’s participation).

There are three major religious buildings in Lo Manthang. Two of them are monasteries, and one is a temple traditionally used for ceremonies by the royal family. Their thick, red walls rise among alleyways that wind past whitewashed mud-brick homes. An 80-year-old king and his family reside in a palace in the town center. The town was founded in the 14th century, and the oldest religious buildings date to the 15th century.

Much of the Tibetan art here reflects a Newari influence, which comes from the Katmandu Valley. Centuries ago, Newari artisans were welcomed by some Tibetan rulers, especially those who followed the Sakya branch of Tibetan Buddhism, which is common throughout Mustang.

The art project began in 1999 with the cleaning of murals in Thubchen Monastery, after an initial round of architectural reconstruction. Then the painters moved on to Jampa Temple, where the dark main chamber has a towering statue of Maitreya, the future Buddha.

The walls on the first floor are adorned with remarkably detailed mandalas, a form of geometric art considered a representation of the cosmos. Here, Mr. Fieni decided to deviate from the initial approach taken at Thubchen. He wanted his team, rather than do purely restoration, to paint sections of the walls where an original mural had disappeared or been destroyed.

The painters would then try to recreate those pictures based on tradition and on what had been painted elsewhere in the chamber. Mr. Fieni also consulted with monks to ask what pictures they wanted on the walls. In 2010, the team returned to Thubchen to adopt the new approach and paint large sections.

“Call this painting, not restoration or conservation,” Mr. Fieni said. He added that this method helped restore the living nature of the artwork, as opposed to what he called the Western “colonialism” approach of preserving the old above all else.

“When we arrived, we started working following the Westerners’ theories of conservation,” Mr. Fieni said. “Then, while working and living within the community, I changed my point of view, and I decided to follow the needs of the culture I was working for. So I decided to start reconstructing the missing areas.”

Once taught how to paint, local residents decide how they want to decorate the monasteries, Mr. Fieni said.

 “All the other conservation projects I’ve seen are Westerners doing the artwork, locals fetching clay,” he said. “This is the first one where we train the locals.”

There were challenges. Painters in higher castes initially did not want artists in lower castes sitting on the scaffolding above them. And there were religious beliefs to accommodate. At the buildings, an abbot used a mirror to absorb the spirits of the gods in the statues and murals before the painting began; after the project is completed, the abbot is expected to release the spirits from the mirror so they can return.

Mr. Fieni’s approach to restoring the temples and monasteries has been contested. Christian Luczanits, a senior curator at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, which displays Himalayan art, said he blanched at what he saw when he traveled to Mustang in 2010 and 2012. Mr. Luczanits said that sufficient scholarship had not been done into the original paintings. Now, because of the new painting, any scholar wanting to study the originals must look at photographs rather than rely on what is present in the temple, he said.

“The temple now after restoration cannot be understood anymore without the previous documentation,” Mr. Luczanits said in an interview.

Last year, he made his opinion known at a contentious meeting at the palace in Lo Manthang. Among those present were Mr. Fieni, an abbot, the prince of Mustang and representatives of the American Himalayan Foundation, which gives financial support to many development projects in Mustang. (The foundation’s president, Erica Stone, said the total being spent on the building renovations in Lo Manthang alone was $2.58 million. An additional $768,000 had been spent for restoring the town wall and constructing drainage.)

There was vigorous debate, and the royal family and the abbot both backed Mr. Fieni. The ceremonial prince, Jigme Singi Palbar Bista, said in an interview that the buildings “are renovated very well.”

Thoroughly painting Thubchen Monastery would take another three to four years, but the project’s budget will run out this year. Mr. Fieni estimated there was a total of about 3,660 square feet of wall space to paint.

He said he was thinking about moving on to restoration projects in India or Myanmar with some of the painters he had trained here. In 2006 and 2007, he took five of them to work with him at a Tibetan monastery in Sichuan Province, in western China, a project that was never completed because the Chinese authorities shut down access to the area after a Tibetan uprising in 2008.

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Buddhist groups gather weekly in Martin, Indian River counties

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Martin, Florida (USA) -- A small, golden sculpture of the Buddha faced a quiet, meditating crowd early this month in Stuart.

It was the first meeting for the newly formed Treasure Coast Dharma Practice Group, which is one of several small Buddhist groups that gather each week across Martin and Indian River counties.

Curiosity, health problems and a search for enlightenment are a few of the reasons that have led locals to join and form the groups, including the recently opened Mangalam Dharma Center for the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism in Sebastian, and the Vero Beach Zen Buddhism practitioners.

Although about 0.5 percent of Floridians practiced Buddhism in 2008, according to a Pew Forum on Religion and Public survey, practitioners on the Treasure Coast see Buddhism slowly growing locally.

“People continue to become attracted to the psychological aspect of Buddhism,” said Jim Patteson, who leads the Zen group of about 30 in Vero Beach and is a retired professor of Eastern philosophy, among other topics, at Indian River State College. Most of Patteson’s college students, he said, have become practitioners of Buddhism upon finishing the class.

“Something else I’ve noticed that attracts people is that they can go on with their religion, yet still benefit from Buddhism,” added Patteson. “Buddhism answers most of the important things about life.”

The fundamental insight of the Buddha is: life consists of suffering, which is caused by attachment to the self, which is in turn attached to the things of this world. Liberating oneself from such attachment is done by following the Eightfold Path, including mindfulness and concentration.

Patteson learned these philosophies in 1968 as a 19-year-old Marine in Vietnam. He’d gone into town one night in search of drugs, coming across a poor family that invited him to learn to meditate.

Patteson studied Buddhism during and after leaving the military. When he landed in Vero Beach about 25 years ago, he found no Buddhism group in town. Now, there are about three Buddhism groups in Indian River County.

Patteson is helping Martin County resident Fred Walker start a Stuart Buddhism group, which is expected to meet monthly at rented space in Unity of Stuart. Patteson and Walker believe the group is the only in Stuart, with the nearest Buddhist temple in Palm Beach County.

Walker, 68, said it was a heart attack in his 40s that put him on the path to Buddhism.

“I’m reaping the benefits of Buddhism. I’m more at peace than ever,” said Walker, who went on a Buddhist spiritual retreat this month and hopes others in the area will find an interest in Buddhism.

Walker’s first group meeting attracted 25 people.

“I came to the group to learn to be calmer and not hold on to anger,” said Port St. Lucie resident Tara Raymo, 37, who attended the meeting. Raymo was raised Catholic but now is agnostic, and had been searching for a Buddhism group near her when she found a posting about the Stuart meet-up.

“I think people are coming here to learn to live a happier life,” she said.

Like Raymo, some practitioners of Buddhism are spiritual but not religious. Ram Jyoti, who leads the Tibetan center in Sebastian, said many regulars in her group of about 20, however, are members of nearby places of worship.

“They find that what they learn from Buddhist study and practice enhances their faith and ability to deal with difficulties in their lives,” Jyoti wrote in an email. “There also is a strong focus on compassion — cultivating the intention to benefit all beings and doing what is possible to help others.

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Celebrating Buddhist culture

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Hanoi, Vietnam -- Much of Viet Nam’s most famous, traditional and valued cultural heritage has been provided or inspired by Buddhism, a religion which has for centuries been deeply embedded in the national psyche.

<< Visitors contemplate Buddhist statues on display in the Ha Noi-based National Museum of History. The exhibition will last until August this year.

An extensive exhibition at the National Museum of History in Ha Noi is currently presenting and celebrating many varied examples of Buddhist culture which offer a reflection of the county’s development for over a thousand years.

Titled Vietnamese Buddhist Culture Heritage, the show introduces many valuable physical objects such as pagodas, towers, worshipping statues and paintings alongside examples of intangible heritage such as ceremonies, music and ethics.

With common cultural themes including humanity, humility and harmony, Buddhist heritage can be considered beautiful works of art, according to Nguyen Van Cuong, the museum’s director.

“Vietnamese Buddhism has left a rich and diverse history of material and spiritual cultural heritage throughout the country,” he said. “Through nearly 200 objects dating from the first to the 20th century, just a small selection in itself, we desire to introduce some general features and unique values of Buddhist heritage to the public and to contribute to efforts to preserve and raise awareness of Vietnamese culture.”

One of the most remarkable exhibits is a Canh Thinh bronze drum (dated from 1800), which was recently certified by the Prime Minister as one of Viet Nam’s National Treasures. It was discovered at Nanh Pagoda in the capital’s Ninh Hiep Commune before being moved to the museum for display.

The artefacts have been arranged according to the different time periods that they belong to. It is believed that Buddhism spread directly from India to Viet Nam via a sea route around 2,000 years ago. The Luy Lau region, which now belongs to Bac Ninh Province in the north, soon became a significant Buddhist centre. Many important vestiges of the religion have been found in the region, including notable discoveries at the pagodas of Phat Tich and Dau which are now being exhibited.

<< Still life: Gilded wooden statues dating from 17th-18th century are on display at the exhibition titled Vietnamese Buddhist Culture Heritage.

Items created in the first ten centuries of Vietnamese Buddhism soon formed part of the Cham and Oc Eo cultures in central and southern Viet Nam, with unique sculptures and statues carved from gold, stone, sandstone and wood inspired by Indian arts.

The most prosperous period for Buddhism in the country arrived during the Ly and Tran dynasties (11-14th century) when it became the national religion, and this is reflected in the cultural artefacts remaining from that time, which begin to merge religious meanings with a more unique national identity.

Although Confucianism became the official ideology under the Le and Mac dynasties in the 15th and 16th centuries, and so Buddhist relics from this period aren’t as varied as in others, visitors can still see objects from this era that have been collected by museum staff. These include statues, lamp stands and incense burners marked with clear inscriptions and dedications.

In the past, many wealthy men ordered artisans to make worshipping objects to be donated to pagodas. As a mark of thanks for the donation, the name of every benefactor would be emblazoned on stone steles at the places of worship. The exhibition has interested historians by displaying statues bearing the names of female donors, which is a unique discovery according to Cuong.

The exhibition will run until the end of August at the museum, which can be found at 25 Tong Dan Street in Ha Noi.

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Following the Buddhist trail

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Bangalore, India -- I hadn’t ever travelled in a large group in a package-tour sort of arrangement before - I love travelling by myself because then you can do the things you want to and take your time about it.

<< Tourists at the Mahabodhi Temple, Bihar.

And so, when I found myself in a group of some 50 Buddhist pilgrims from south India in a train heading to do what’s called ‘the north Indian Buddhist circuit’, I was somewhat intimidated. But it actually turned out to be fun, and certainly much less expensive than if I had visited all those places we covered in a fortnight alone.

We arrived late at night in Bhopal, and whatever little I saw of it as we headed out of the city was enough to convince me that I hadn’t missed much by not visiting the sights that it boasts of — it seemed to be one massive garbage dump. It took a little more than an hour to reach Sanchi, where we were to spend that night at the pleasant Buddhist pilgrim guest house funded by the Sri Lankan government.

Land of ‘stupas’

The sprawling ruins scattered atop a hillock and commanding an exquisite view of the surrounding countryside, testify to the importance that Sanchi once enjoyed when Buddhism flourished almost all across in India.

The enormous onion-shaped Sanchi Stupa that we’ve all read about in school is an architectural marvel, with its ornately-carved gateways, and surrounded by several smaller stupas, the ruins of numerous monasteries and a temple containing the remains of two of the Buddha’s closest disciples, Sariputta and Mogallana.

The local museum is a veritable treasure-trove of Buddhist statues and other artefacts.

From Sanchi, we headed northeast, to Gonda, in Uttar Pradesh. From there, we bundled into a bus and drove past desperately poor villages till we arrived at Shravasti. This is where the Buddha spent many rainy seasons, when he would then halt his peregrinations in the huge Jetavana grove that was gifted to the Buddhist Sangha by a rich banker, Anathapindika.

The grove is dotted with ruins of what must have once been massive structures — tanks, temples, prayer halls and monasteries — as well as spots that have a special association with the Buddha, such as a platform marking the place where the Buddha would sit and preach, and another indicating the room he stayed in.

From Shravasti, we travelled to Kapilvastu, in the Siddharthnagar district, a five-hour journey through one of the poorest parts of India. Suddhodana, Buddha’s father, is said to have been the ruler of Kapilvastu, but today nothing even remotely resembling regal splendour remains. The only indication of the town’s hallowed past is a huge stupa and the ruins of what our local guide claimed was Suddhodana’s palace.

It took us two hours to reach Sanauli, located right on the Indo-Nepalese border, from where we crossed into Nepal to visit Lumbini. The Buddha was born here, the precise spot marked by a temple built over the ruins of a third century BC structure and a majestic stone pillar erected by Emperor Ashoka, a major supporter of Buddhism.

The temple is surrounded by a number of enormous new monasteries and prayer halls built recently by various Buddhist countries, each more ornate than the other. As I peeked into some of them, I shuddered to think of what the Buddha himself would have thought about that display of ostentatious worldly splendour — and that, too, all in his memory!

Kushinagar is a five-hour bus drive from Lumbini. Reaching the town, we halted at the Burmese temple for lunch and then went to the shrine built on the spot where the Buddha attained mahaparinirvana, leaving his mortal body.

It is a simple structure, as befits the Buddha’s own life and message, and it contains a huge statue of the Buddha in repose, said to be over a 1,000 years old. Behind the shrine are stupas said to contain the Buddha’s ashes, and the ruins of numerous monasteries.

That evening, we gathered at a shrine built on the spot where the Buddha’s body was cremated, and an amazing woman — a south Indian Buddhist, possibly a recent convert — led us in a beautifully solemn prayer.

Inner peace

Our next destination was Sarnath, located on the outskirts of Benaras, whose towering stupa marks the spot where the Buddha gave his first sermon. There are numerous other Buddhist ruins here, as well as a temple containing the relics of the Buddha.

Bihar is home to numerous places with an ancient Buddhist association, and from Sarnath, we headed there to do a quick round of some of them. The sprawling ruins of the famed Nalanda University, once a major centre for Buddhist learning, stand as mute testimony to India’s long-lost Buddhist tradition. Nearby Rajgir, nestled between low-lying hills, was where the Buddha spent much time teaching and meditating.

The high-point of our visit was, of course, Bodh Gaya, also in Bihar, with its enormous Mahabodhi Mahavihara, which marks the spot where the Buddha attained enlightenment. The town is miserably filthy, though, even the area around the temple. Despite the vast number of visitors, especially foreigners, that the town receives right through the year, who obviously bring in much foreign exchange, both the local authorities and the tourism department don’t seem to think this an issue to bother about.

Thousands of pilgrims — almost all foreigners — pour into the temple throughout the day, and even at night, bowing before the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha attained nirvana, meditating in the forest of little stupas that surrounds the temple, counting their beads, spinning their prayer-wheels or chanting in low, mellifluous tones.

Tibetan lamas in ochre robes, Burmese bhikkhus in mustard, Sri Lankan lay people in white, Chinese nuns in purple and the odd-Western Buddhist convert silently circumambulate the most important of all Buddhist shrines throughout the world, their faces lit with a soft peace that you can’t help noticing.

And as you stand transfixed, gazing the massive sea of humanity converge on the spot where the Great Master finally attained ultimate wisdom and liberation, you can’t help wonder, and lament over, how few Indian faces you see among them, for Buddhism is now almost extinct in the land of its birth.

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Visiting scholar links Buddhism and physics

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The lecture focused on the fields’ shared aspects, like mindfulness, time and ambiguity

Santa Fe, CA  (USA) -- Physics offers “crisper” analogies for meditation than traditional Buddhism does, said Fred Cooper, external professor at Santa Fe Institute and former program director for theoretical physics at the National Science Foundation at a lecture last night.

Cooper, who has studied physics and meditation for over 30 years, spoke about connections between quantum physics and Buddhism in List 120 in a talk sponsored by the Brown Meditation Community.

Buddhism and physics share a common “conceptual framework” consisting of “ground, path and fruition,” but they diverge in the specifics, he said. Physics is grounded in mathematical equations, while Buddhism is grounded in the rejection of a dualistic perspective. In physics the academic path involves learning algebra and other mathematics, while in meditation the path entails transitioning from mindfulness to awareness, he said. For physicists, fruition is winning the Nobel Prize, while for meditation, fruition is reaching enlightenment.

Physics and Buddhism also both question the relationship between space and time, he said. “How do you set a standard of time?” Cooper asked. “What’s past is past. What’s future is yet to come. Time is a relative concept as a meditator.”

In order to measure small quantities of space and time, physicists use high-energy light, which warps the measurements. As a result, when measuring on smaller and smaller scales, space and time “lose their meaning,” Cooper said.

Cooper pointed to parallels between training in physics and training in meditation. “Neither discipline guarantees success. When you get your Ph.D. in physics, you learn all of the mechanics of physics,” he said. But whether a physicist makes a discovery that revolutionizes physics depends partially on luck, as does winning a Nobel Prize or attaining enlightenment.

The book “The Tao of Physics” by Fritjof Capra popularized the similarities between modern physics and Eastern religious traditions. Cooper criticized the best-selling book for claiming physics proved ideas in Eastern religion were correct about the organization of matter.

Because physics relies on an “evolving set of conceptual frameworks,” Cooper said, “The Tao of Physics” does not help either discipline. It compares the current state of physics to Eastern teachings, but the field of physics will likely change in the future, he said.

Asked whether physicists show more interest in meditation or whether meditators show more interest in physics, Cooper said without hesitation that meditators are far more interested in physics. For physicists, “there is safety in being focused on solving equations, but you can’t solve how to live,” he said.

About 80 students and community members attended the talk.

Connor Flexman ’16 agreed with Cooper’s criticism of “The Tao of Physics.”

“A lot of people make the argument for meditation based on faulty physics,” he said, adding that Cooper “didn’t try to prove meditation through quantum mechanics.”

“Meditation allows me to gather my thoughts,” said Henry Langton ’16. He added that he thinks there is a stigma against meditation but said this lecture and advances in neuroscience help justify the practice’s usefulness.

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Indo - Sri Lanka Buddhist ties strengthened

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Kandy, Sri Lanka -- An eight member Indian Buddhist delegation led by Ven Dr Bhadant Rahula Bodhi Maha Thera met President Mahinda Rajapaksa at President's House in Kandy on February 22. The visit was to strengthen ties between Buddhists of the two countries and bring India and Sri Lanka closer through the historical bond and civilisational link of Buddhism.

<< President Mahinda Rajapaksa meeting the Buddhist delegation

They also discussed the possibility of the installation of a statue in Colombo in honour of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the Indian Buddhist savant who was instrumental in bringing a large number of Indians, especially down trodden people (Dalits) into the fold of Buddhism.

On October 14, 1956 at Deekshabhoomi, Nagpur Dr Ambedkar publicly converted to Buddhism. He took the three refuges and the Five Precepts from a Burmese Buddhist monk, Bhadant U Chandramani and in his turn administered them to the 600,000 of his followers who were present.

The Indian Buddhist team arrived in the country at the invitation of Dr Lilaknath Weerasinghe, President 'Success Sri Lanka' based in Kandy.

'Success Sri Lanka' hosted the delegation during their stay in Kandy and Colombo and accompanied them to Anuradhapura with the assistance of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress and coordinated by the German Dharmaduta Society and the Indo - Sri Lanka Buddhist Network, all of which entities constitute Regional Centres of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB).

The Indian Buddhist team comprised Most Venerable Dr Bhadant Rahula Bodhi Maha Thera, President Bhikkhu Sangha's United Buddhist Mission, India, Ramdas Athawale, former Member of Parliament, Vice President of the World Fellowship of Buddhist, India, Ven. Bhadant Rewat Bodhi, High Priest, Bhikkhu Niwas Gedam layout, Nagpur, India, Avinash Kamble, President of the United Buddhist Federation, India, R L Tambe, Principal of the Tambe Education Society College, Mumbai, Sachchidanand Fulekar, Principal of the Dr Ambedkar Law College, Nagpur, Sachin M Moon, Managing Director, Lord Buddha Television, India, Vishwas Sakru Sarode, Director, HR and I R Lilavati, Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai.

During their visit, the Indian Buddhist delegation met the Maha Nayaka Theras of the Malwatta and Asgiriya Chapters, Ven Banagala Upatissa Nayaka Thera, President, Maha Bodhi Society, Ven Kirama Wimalajothi Maha Thera, President, Buddhist Cultural Centre, Ven Dr W Wimalagnana Thera, Gangaramaya, Peliyagoda, Ven Medagama Dhammananda, Asgiriya Maha Viharaya, Ven Getamande Gunananda Thera, Ven T Palitha, Nalandaramaya, Nugegoda, Ven Mettavihari and Ven Galayaye Piyadassi Thera, Chief Sanghanayake Thera of the United Kingdom currently on a visit to Sri Lanka.

Ven Banagala Upatissa Nayaka Thera made a public announcement that a suitable portion of land within the boundaries of the Maha Bodhi Society precincts at Maradana, Colombo 10 would be allocated for the installation of the first statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and close to the pre-existing statue of Angarika Dharmapala, founder of the Maha Bodhi Society. A proposal by Ven .Kirama Wimalajothi Thera to set up an institute to commemorating Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was also discussed. This proposed centre will provide residential facilities and training opportunities for visiting Indian Buddhist monks and nuns.

It is proposed to set up a Board of Management to plan and administer the premises and the Dhamma teachings. The establishment of a corresponding centre in India is also discussed.

The convening of an International Conference on 'The Revival and Renaissance of Buddhism in India in the 20th Century' has also been mooted.

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