Sri Lankan President HE Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Hon Ranil Wickramasinghe inaugurated the exhibition of the most sacred relics of Lord Buddha, brought from Pakistan, in an impressive ceremony at Temple Trees on Sunday.
Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Hon Karu Jayasuriya, senior government ministers, high level government officials, Secretary Heritage of Pakistan Mohsin Haqqani, Deputy High Commissioner Dr Sarfraz Sipra, the curator of Taxila Museum, officials of the High Commission and a large number of religious scholars attended the inaugural ceremony.
The holy relics will be in Colombo for a 4-day public exposition from May 21 till May 24. After that the relics will be taken to other cities of Sri Larnka and will be brought back to Colombo on June 22.
The sacred relics include two holy bone relics of the Buddha, a golden casket containing the relics and a stone reliquary in stupa shape. These holy relics are part of a collection from Taxila museum of Pakistan, which is located at one of the most important archaeological sites in Asia.
The relic casket of steatite with a miniature gold casket inside, containing holy bone relics were found near the Dharmarajika stupa. The steatite casket is 7.5 inches high and has been well turned on the lath.
