Colombo [Sri Lanka], April 26 (ANI): Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “great leader,” Sri Lankan-Tibetan Buddhist Brotherhood Founder President Damenda Porage stated that the revival of Buddhism took place after he was appointed Prime Minister of India.
Porage recalled PM Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka in 2017 when he attended the Vesak Day celebrations, which is observed as one of the biggest festivals among Buddhists. He noted that PM Modi started his speech with Buddhist chanting.
Speaking to ANI, Damenda Porage said, “The Prime Minister of India, PM Modi, is a great leader, I should say. After his appointment as the PM of India, we can see a revival in Buddhism took place. He is so generous not only to India, but to the neighbouring countries. Like, recently, we saw the Buddha’s relics travel to Thailand. The Buddhist people of Thailand were overjoyed by this gesture.”
“And before that, in his time the holy Buddha relics from India travelled to Mongolia and they travelled to Sri Lanka too. We remember PM Modi came to Sri Lanka in 2017 as the chief guest of the UN Vesak Day. He started his speech with a Buddhist chanting with a verse from the Dhammapada. We have seen him speaking, addressing to Buddhist communities worldwide every time, he selected an appropriate phrase from the Buddhist doctrine,” he added.
Damenda Porage stated that he has never seen a world leader taking examples from Buddhist teachings to their speeches. He also praised the Indian government’s decision to donate USD 15 million to Sri Lanka to improve Buddhist activities. He stated that the Mahasangha of Sri Lanka love and respect PM Modi.
He said, “I have never seen any leader in the world taking examples from the Buddha’s teachings to their speeches and when they address their communities. But, PM Modi, he does it. And recently the government of India donated USD 15 million to Sri Lanka to improve Buddhist activities.”
“No one in the world, no country in the world has done such a meritorious deed to gift us this amount of grant to improve to promote Buddhism in Sri Lanka. And the Mahasangha of Sri Lanka love him that I know. They respect him. They appreciate him. They appreciate his mission towards Buddhism and they appreciate PM Modi’s work to promote Buddhism in India and also helping the Buddhist nations neighbouring India,” he added.
Earlier in March, the relics of Lord Buddha and those of his two main disciples, Arahant Sariputta and Maha Moggallana, were sent on a 25-day exposition across four cities in Thailand.
The exposition drew a phenomenal response, during which over 4 million devotees from Thailand and other countries in the Mekong region paid homage to the relics.
The revered relics’ exposition, organised by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), travelled to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchathani and Krabi provinces, starting from New Delhi on February 22. (ANI)
