Monks Offer Prayers to Sacred Buddha Relics being Taken to Russia
New Delhi: National Museum Director General Gurmeet Singh Chawla and a high-level delegation of 11 senior Indian monks prayed for the relics of Gautam Buddha before heading to Russia’s Republic of Kalmykia for an exhibition on Saturday.
The exhibition will be held in the capital Elista between 11-18 October. The exhibition is organized by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), the National Museum and the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts (IGNCA).
The relics preserved in the National Museum will be housed in the main Buddhist monastery in Elista, known as the Geden Sheddup Choikorling Monastery or the “Golden House of Shakyamuni Buddha”.
A high-level delegation of eleven senior Indian monks will offer blessings to local devotees and conduct religious services for the predominantly Buddhist population of the region.
The Relics will be received by Shajin Lama Geshe Tenzin Choidak, Chairman of the Buddhists of Kalmykia, Batu Sergeyevich Khasikov, President of the Republic of Kalmykia, and other distinguished Buddhist Sangha members.
The monastery, an important Tibetan Buddhist center opened to the public in 1996, is located in the Kalmyk steppe.
It was Kushok Bakula Rinpoche 19, a respected monk and diplomat from Ladakh, who played an important role in the revival of Buddhism in Mongolia and the reintroduction of Buddha dharma in the Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva regions of Russia.
The delegation, led by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, will host additional events throughout the week. These include the teachings of the Holy 43rd Sakya Trizin Rinpoche and the presentation of the Holy ‘Kanjur’ (a set of 108 Mongolian religious texts translated from Tibetan) to nine Buddhist institutes and one university.
