Bangladesh to donate Buddha Hair Relic to Lanka

DHAKA: The Buddhist community in Bangladesh plans to donate strands of a lock of hair from the Buddha to Sri Lanka as a goodwill gesture, officials said yesterday.

Three Cabinet Ministers along with religious leaders are scheduled to arrive in the Bangladeshi capital tomorrow to collect the Sacred Relic, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nazmul Quanine said.

The lock of hair, kept under tight security at a Buddhist monastery in the southeastern port city of Chittagong, has been shared with other Buddhist countries such as Thailand and Japan, Bangladesh Buddhist Association President Ajit Ranjan Barua said.

“The Sri Lankan Government has again made the request for the Sacred Hair through the Government. We have agreed to donate part of this Sacred Hair as a gesture of goodwill to our Sri Lankan brothers,” Barua said.

Bangladesh Sunday, AFP