'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.

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.