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    Sri Lankan leaders inaugurated the exposition of sacred relics

    May 23, 2016

    President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe inaugurated the exposition of the most Sacred Relics of Lord Buddha brought from Pakistan, in an impressive ceremony at Temple Trees on Saturday (21st) evening, for public exposition.

     

     A large number of senior Monks/religious scholars, Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Karu Jayasuriya, Senior Government Ministers, high level government officials, Secretary Heritage Pakistan Mohsin Haqqani, Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan, Dr Sarfraz Sipra, Curator of Taxila Museum as well as officers of the High Commission attended the ceremony.

     

    The sacred relics includes two holy bone relics of the Buddha, a golden casket containing the relics and a stone reliquary in stupa shape. These holy relics are part of collection from Taxila Museum of Pakistan, which is located at one of the most important archaeological sites in Asia.

     

     The relic casket of steatite with a miniature gold casket inside, containing holy bone relics were found near the Dharmarajika stupa. The steatite casket is 7.5-inch-high and has been well turned on the lath. It has adorned with shallow incised lines round its body and provided with handle on the led in the shape of a miniature casket.

     

    Dharmarajika stupa is the earliest and the largest Buddhist religious complex at Taxila. It is situated on the bank of Dharma rivulet. It was built to enshrine the redistributed holy relics of the Buddha by the famous Mauryan king Asoka the great who was also known as Dharmaraja for his services to Buddhism. Thus it named Dharmarajika.

     

    Dharmarajika was excavated by Ghulam Qadir in 1912-16 under the directions of Sir John Marshall and A.D Siddiqui in 1934-36. The circular stupa has a diameter of 131 feet and 45 feet high drum, constructed in solid stone masonry.

     

    The Gandhara civilization was not only the center of spiritual influence but also the cradle of the world famous Gandhara culture, art and learning. It was from these centers that a unique art of sculpture originated which is known as Gandhara Art all over the world.

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