A gift of great value

A gift of great value
Faizul Khan Tanim finds out what the hair relic handed over on July 18 to a high-powered Sri Lankan delegation means to the Buddhist community

photo Focusbangla

On July 18, the handing over of the hair relics of Gautum Buddha from the Chittagong Buddhist Monastery at Nandan Kanan, Chittagong, to a group of Sri Lankan representatives, may have been treated as a fairly low-key event in Bangladesh, but in Sri Lanka, and in many parts of the world where Buddhists reside, it will be an event of great religious, political, economic and social value. A delegation of 30 members including five government ministers, led by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and four high priests were members of the Sri Lanka team who spent three days in Bangladesh. The delegation also included Mass Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Cultural Affairs Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Religious Affairs and Moral Upliftment Minister Pandu Bandaranaike, and Minister for Highways T B Ekanayake. According to newspapers in Sri Lanka, the relic will be displayed at Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo for three days to celebrate the event before it is transferred to Senanayake Aramaya of Madampe in Sri Lanka, where previously brought hair relics of the Buddha from Chittagong in 1960 have also been enshrined. The Sri Lankan government had formally requested the Bangladesh government for the hair relic, almost two years back. There were steps taken to make the official handover last year but they failed because of political instability in the country. The request came again from the Sri Lankan government after the caretaker government took charge in Bangladesh, restarting the whole process once more. On Wednesday, in a simple ceremony, a vase containing the relic was handed over to Bogollagama. The supreme leader of the Buddhist community in Bangladesh, Sangharaj Dharmasen Mohatero handed over the vase to foreign affairs adviser Dr Ifhtekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and Religious Adviser Maj Gen (retd) Dr ASM Matiur Rahman representing Bangladesh. They then handed over the vase to the Sri Lankan foreign minister. The historic handover took place at Chittagong Buddhist Temple at Nandan Kanan at around 2:30 pm on July 18. In response to this gesture, Bogallagama also handed over a rare footprint and statue of Lord Buddha as a gift to Bangladesh which would be preserved at Chittagong Buddhist Temple. Adorned with flags, illuminations and other decorations, the venue for the official handover looked vibrant in colours, sporting religious messages all over, said Bangladesh Buddhist Association sources. The ceremony was attended by high officials, elites, diplomats, almost 500 Sri Lankan citizens staying in Chittagong and local Buddhists at the monastery at Nandan Kanan, the officials said. According to foreign ministry officials, Bangladesh has given this gift as a gesture of goodwill to Sri Lanka as the hair relic has great religious importance to the Buddhist community across the world. During the visit, the Lankan ministers also discussed transport, telecommunication and other trade issues with Bangladeshi authorities during the three-day trip, said officials from the Sri Lankan High Commission. Ancient Buddhist scriptures record two Indian traders, Thapassu and Bhalluka, were given a lock of Lord Buddha’s hair when they earnestly requested it nearly 2500 years ago. According to an ancient Pali text, Jathakatta Katha, the two received this lock of hair seven weeks after ascetic Siddhartha Gautama attained Buddhahood. Tapussa and Bhallika made an offering of rice cake and honey to the Buddha and took the two refuges, the refuge in the Buddha and the refuge in the Dhamma (the Sangha, the third refuge, did not exist yet). As they were about to depart, they asked the Buddha for an object to worship in his stead and he gave them eight hairs from his head. In Buddhism, relics of the Buddha and various saints are venerated. Originally, after the Buddha’s death, his body was divided for the purpose of relics, and there was an armed conflict between factions for possession of the relics. Afterward, these relics were taken to wherever Buddhism was spread including Burma, Nepal, China, Tibet, Japan, Pakistan, India and many other countries. Shakya Bhikkhu, a religious mendicant of Tibet, came to visit the region, now Bangladesh, in 1930 carrying some hair relics of Buddha. After visiting some renowned monasteries (pagodas) of Chittagong, Shakya stayed in Chittagong Buddhist Monastery for a few days. Impressed by the devotion of the then principal of the monastery Ven Dharma Bangsha Mohasthabir, founder president of Chittagong Buddhist Association, Shakya gave him the relics as gift. Dharma Bangsha handed over the relics to his disciple Ven Dipankar Srigyan Mahasthabir and after that the monastery has been keeping them. Since the Tibetan monk donated it in 1930, the hair relics (Kesho Dhatu) have been preserved at the monastery for the past 77 years. Madampe Senanyaka Aramaya Trust, a Sri Lankan organisation, expressed their eagerness to collect some of the relics to exhibit those to the Buddhist devotees in their country, nearly two years back. Madampe Trust also collected some relics from this monastery in 1958 through Pakistan government and built a mausoleum keeping the relics in the basement. But as the Buddhist devotees cannot take a look at Buddha’s holy hair remaining kept under the concrete cover, the Madampe Trust approached the Chittagong monastery authorities once again for the hair relics so it could be kept for exhibition. Local devotees in Chittagong can take a look on the relics preserved in a wooden box only once a year when the box is opened during the Buddha Purnima. However, the relics that are very small in quantity can hardly be seen with bare eyes and the devotees have to use magnifying glasses, said Adarsha Kumar Barua, secretary general of Bangladesh Buddhist Association. Earlier at different times, Buddhist devotees from Sri Lanka, Japan and Thailand collected the holy remaining of Gautam Buddha from this monastery. Matsutaro Soriki, a Japanese devotee, collected some more relics on September 25 in 1964. The government of Thailand also collected some parts of the relics in 1979.

*This article was first published in Daily New Age on July 20 2007 - http://www.newagebd.com/2007/jul/20/jul20/xtra_inner3.html