To mark 2600th Sambuddhathva Jayanthi:

President to open Int'l Buddhist Museum

Nethali Struys

A newly built International Buddhist Museum will be declared open by President Mahinda Rajapaksa tomorrow in Kandy, to mark the 2600th Sambuddhathva Jayanthi anniversary celebrations, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) spokesman told the 'Daily News.'

A major attraction to tourists, it would be a good investment in the long run, the spokesman pointed out. The museum would contain 18 chambers that would represent the saga of how Buddhism was spread across 18 nations in the world.

This would also give a better opportunity for the tourists to access religious information from one place. Along with these initiatives, plans are afoot to implement a series of programmes representing other religions in the country. This would again be amalgamated to the overall celebrations and commemorations which would take place this month.

The Sri Lanka Tourism officials believe that the ongoing Sambuddhathva Jayanthi celebrations and the International Buddhist Film Festival would attract many tourists of all religious denominations to Sri Lanka from various Buddhist countries.

Countries that are foremost with a strong base of Buddhism are Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, India, Singapore, Burma and Nepal.

During the Vesak festival season, Sri Lanka Tourism was planning to attract as many tourists as possible to view the Vesak zones, pandals and other colourful illuminations around the Colombo city and islandwide.

According to 'Visit Sri Lanka 2011' promotional campaign, the month of May in Sri Lanka Tourism's promotional calendar has been dedicated for the promotion of tourism and religious pilgrims also falling in line with the nationwide preparations for 2600th anniversary celebrations of Sambuddhathva Jayanthi which was a landmark year to commemorate the sacred Enlightenment of Buddha.

Celebrations are being organized on a grand scale with the collaboration of various governmental and non-governmental organizations in the country. Many religious programmes have been lined-up under this initiative to spread the spiritual message of Lord Buddha to the devotees throughout the world.

These include observance of Seela (sacred precepts), alms giving, meditation, Buddhist sermons and illuminations such as pandals, lanterns, peraheras, pageants, devotional hymns which was a good attraction to all Buddhists and non Buddhist tourists throughout the world.