Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was on hand to receive the sacred Kapilavastu Buddhist relics sent by India after more than 30 years.
Rajapaksa received the relics of Buddha (bone fragments excavated in Kapilavastu and considered sacred by Buddhists) at a stately ceremony at the Bandaranaike airport here on Sunday.
He had requested PM Manmohan Singh to send the Kapilavastu relics to enable his Buddhist majority country to pay homage. While the relics had travelled to Sri Lanka for exposition earlier in 1978, this trip was mired in controversy as MDMK chief Vaiko wrote to the PM not to send the casket to Colombo.
A special Indian Airforce flight carrying the relics was accompanied by the Indian Minister of Culture, Kumari Selja, and the director general of the national museum of India. The relics will have the status of a head of state. The exposition will open at Kapilawasthu Hall in Kelaniya and travel thereafter to seven other locations across Sri Lanka from August 20 to September 4.
Discovered 113 years ago by the first director of the ASI, Alexander Cunningham, the Kapilavastu relics are believed to contain Gautama Buddha's remains. The relics were found during excavations at Piprahwa in present day Bihar.