Telangana invites Sri Lanka Minister to lay foundation stone for Buddhavanam new project

Colombo/Hyderabad: Buddhavanam Special Officer Mallepalli Laxmaiah on Monday met Viduravikramanayake, the Minister for Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, in Sri Lanka at Colombo. On the occasion, the BSO invited the Sri Lankan Minister to visit Buddhavanam project at Nagarjunasagar.

Mallepalli briefed the Minister about the unique features of the Buddhist theme park, and informed him on the new project called ‘The 2500 years journey of Buddhism’ in one segment in which the spread of Buddhism in South-East Asian Countries in separate cave like structure for each country. Mallepalli invited him to grace the occasion of laying of foundation stone for the new project scheduled on October 14.

Responding to the invitation, Viduravikramanayake suggested to enter an MoU between Government of Telangana and Sri Lanka and to establish a Sri Lanka-Telangana Friendship centre at Hyderabad to have exchange and academic programmes on cultural front through its heritage forum with meetings at Hyderabad and Colombo alternately once for every 3months.

Dr Sivanagireddy, Buddhist Expert consultant, Buddhavanam project enlightened the Minister on the 1700 years old Buddhist connection between the Telugu and Sri Lankan people.

Laxmaiah also called on Somarathne Vidanapathirana, Secretary, Ministry of Buddhasasana and invited him to Buddhavanam for which the Secretary responded positively. Somarathne presented a book on 2600 years of Buddhatva to Mallepalli. Prof Gamini Ranasinghe, Director General, Central Cultural fund, Srilanka and Dr E Sivanagireddy participated in both the events.