'Potential for reviving trade contacts with Orissa'
There is good potential for reviving cultural and trade contacts
through measures that can benefit both Sri Lanka and Orissa and
engendering greater people to people contacts, Sri Lanka's High
Commissioner in India Prasad Kariyawasam said last week when he visited
the State of Orissa now known as Odisha, to exploring and reviving
ancient links with Orissa and Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in India Prasad Kariyawasam,
in conversation with Shri Naveen Patnaik, Governor of the
State of Orissa. |
The High Commissioner said so when he called upon the Chief Minister
and the Governor of the State of Orissa Shri Naveen Patnaik, during the
visit. The High Commissioner highlighted the ancient links between Sri
Lanka and Orissa, which was then known as Kalinga. Buddhism and
connected civilization was the link between Orissa and Sri Lanka.
During his meeting with Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik.
Kariyawasam, said historical records describe as to how the Buddha's
tooth relics were carried to Sri Lanka by a royal couple from Kalinga.
People to people contacts as well as cultural and trade links were
vibrant between Sri Lanka and Kalinga during ancient times, the High
Commissioner emphasized.
During his visit the High Commissioner visited the Kalinga Institute
of Industrial Technology with 18,000 undergraduate students and the
Kalinga Institute of Social Studies, where 20,000 indigenous children
are provided with a complete education free.
The High Commissioner also visited Mahabodhi Temple in Bhubaneswar
and the ancient Buddhist sites of Ratnagiri and Udayagiri that reflected
ancient Buddhist history of Kalinga and its links with Sri Lanka as
well. |