New Delhi: National Museum Director General Gurmeet Singh Chawla and a high-level delegation of 11 senior Indian monks on Saturday offered prayers to the sacred relics of Gautam Buddha before departing for Russia’s Kalmykia Republic for an exposition.
The exposition will be held in the capital city of Elista from October 11 to 18. It is being organised by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), the National Museum, and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).
The sacred relics, preserved in the National Museum, will be enshrined in the main Buddhist monastery in Elista, known as the Geden Sheddup Choikorling Monastery, or the “Golden Abode of Shakyamuni Buddha.”
A high-level delegation of eleven senior Indian monks will offer blessings to local devotees and conduct religious services for the region’s predominantly Buddhist population.
The Holy Relics will be received by the Head of the Buddhists of Kalmykia, Shajin Lama Geshe Tenzin Choidak, Batu Sergeyevich Khasikov, Head of the Republic of Kalmykia, and other eminent Buddhist Sangha members.
The monastery, a major Tibetan Buddhist centre opened to the public in 1996, is located in the Kalmyk steppe.
It was the 19th Kushok Bakula Rinpoche, a revered monk and diplomat from Ladakh, who played a key role in reviving Buddhism in Mongolia and reintroducing the Buddha dharma in Russia’s Buryatia, Kalmykia, and Tuva regions.
The delegation, led by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, will host additional activities during the week. These include teachings by His Holiness the 43rd Sakya Trizin Rinpoche and the presentation of the Holy ‘Kanjur’—a set of 108 Mongolian religious texts translated from Tibetan—to nine Buddhist institutes and a university.
