By Chime Tenzing
Dharamsala:20th May – Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar traveled to Dharamsala and met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and formally invited the Tibetan leader to visit Patna to inaugurate the proposed Buddha Memorial Park in Patna. “Who can be better suited than His Holiness the Dalai Lama to inaugurate the Buddha Park?” Nitish reportedly told the media during his visit to Dharamsala in February.
According to The Telegraph, the construction of the Buddha Memorial Park is in its final stages. The Park has attracted attention from across the Buddhist world. Preparations are afoot to extend a red carpet welcome to His Holiness, who will inaugurate it on May 27, (15th day of the fourth Tibetan ‘Saka’ month) marking the 2550th year of Mahaparinirvana of Lord Buddha. The Director-general of police Neelmani said “The administration has worked out a foolproof security arrangement at the time of the Dalai Lama’s visit.
Adjacent to the Patna railway station and barely 7 km from the Jaiprakash Narayan Airport, the park — a brainchild of chief minister Nitish Kumar — is located right in the heart of the Bihar’s capital on Frazer Road.
Delegates from Sri Lanka, Japan, Myanmar and Thailand have consented to attend the function. Visitors from over 40 countries from across the world had converged to see and hear the Dalai Lama delivering his world peace discourse at Bodh Gaya in January.
The Park is being built at the cost of Rs 125 crore. Besides a giant statue of Gautam Buddha, the park will have a large meditation hall where over 1,000 devotees can meditate simultaneously.
Nitish is expected to seek advice of His Holiness for keeping the urn containing holy relics of Lord Buddha in the park for public display. The relics are preserved at Patna Museum for about 60 years after its discovery during excavations in Vaishali.
The relic has become a political issue as opposition leaders argue that the relics should be kept in Vaishali from where it had been excavated.
Recently, when Nitish was camping in Vaishali during his Pravas Yatra, the matter was raised and the CM had assured that it would be kept in Vaishali provided it was properly preserved there.
The very purpose of building the beautiful park in Patna was to keep the relics there, said sources.
“The Buddhists and tourists have reason to visit Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda and Vaishali, but there is nothing to attract them to Patna. It had been planned to keep the relics in the park for display in a bid to attract the tourists,” sources said. If Dalai Lama gives sanction for keeping the relics in the park, nobody will dare oppose it, sources added. “That’s the reason Nitish has personally invited the spiritual head to inaugurate the park.”
