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A delegation of Sri Lankan Buddhists on Thursday introduced relics of the Buddha to the Dalai Lama at his dwelling in Dharamsala, India, in a gesture that was celebrated by tons of of Tibetans who lined the streets with silk scarves and flowers.
The relics – fragments of the Buddha’s bones and tooth – have immense historic and non secular significance, connecting Buddhist worshippers to the legacy of Buddha, a wandering ascetic and non secular instructor who lived throughout the sixth and fifth centuries BCE and whose teachings fashioned the important thing tenets of Buddhism.
Tibetans alongside the streets paid their respects because the relics made their option to the Dalai Lama’s residence.
The chief of the Sri Lankan delegation, Waskaduwe Mahindawansa Maha Nayaka Thero, mentioned the relics have been introduced to the Tibetan Buddhist non secular chief on behalf of all the Sangha neighborhood in Sri Lanka as a token of their “immeasurable gratitude and admiration” for his function in “engaging in extra for Buddhism than anybody in historical past.”
“This marks a particular momentous event for all the Buddhist neighborhood on the earth as a result of we have been in a position to reward the holy, genuine, sacred relics of the Buddha as a token of appreciation for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s kindness, knowledge and compassion in the direction of all the humankind,” he mentioned.
The Buddhist neighborhood reveres the Dalai Lama as a residing Bodhisattva – a being who’s on the way in which to turning into enlightened – making him the one eligible particular person on the earth to whom to provide the genuine and holy relics, he added.
Maha Nayaka Thero is head of Amarapura Sambuddha Sasanodaya Maha Nikaya, a sect of Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced in Sri Lanka and different components of Southeast Asia.
‘The world wants peace’
The Dalai Lama waited exterior the gate to his dwelling to obtain the relics and welcome the Sri Lankans, as monks chanted prayers and staged a proper welcome, and artists carried out Tibetan songs and dances.
“On a sensible stage, the world wants peace, and that’s the core of the Buddha’s message,” the Dalai Lama mentioned.
“Nevertheless, I’m ready to not point out Buddhism as such, however to emphasise secular ethics and common values, essential amongst which is compassion,” he mentioned. “The vital factor is to have a heat coronary heart.”
The delegation, together with Damenda Porage, founder-president of the Sri Lankan-Tibetan Buddhist Brotherhood, mentioned it was a long-held want to provide the relics to the Dalai Lama as a present.
Six years of planning
The occasion was the fruits of six years of planning and preparation, with the help of the seventh Ling Rinpoche, the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama’s tutor, accelerating the success of the presentation of the relics, the delegation mentioned.
The gadgets introduced to the Dalai Lama are a part of 21 genuine relics which were preserved for a number of generations on the Sri Lankan Buddhist temple of RajaGuru Sri Subuthi Waskaduwa Maha Viharaya in Waskaduwa, close to the capital Colombo.
“These sacred relics, found throughout the British reign in India within the Piprahwa excavations, maintain profound significance for hundreds of thousands of Buddhists worldwide,” the Sri Lankan Buddhist chief mentioned.
After the Buddha’s passing, the relics have been divided and enshrined in stupas in eight kingdoms, together with the traditional metropolis of Kapilavastu, which was generally known as the capital of the Shakya kingdom the place the Buddha spent the primary 30 years of his life.
These relics have been later found at an excavation at Piprahwa, a modern-day archaeological website in Uttar Pradesh, India, or what was earlier generally known as Kaplivastu, throughout the British reign in India.
In 1898, British official William Peppe introduced them to the Sri Lankan monk, Waskaduwe Sri Subhuti Mahanayake Thero, who took the Kapilavastu Buddha relics to Sri Lanka.
Extra reporting by Tenzin Woser for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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