Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama will attend a first-of-its-kind festival of Buddhist Heritage to be hosted by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority (APTA) in Vijayawada.
The organisers say the three-day fare scheduled from February 3 will be a blend of celebration, education and entertainment. Monks from Sri Lanka, Burma, China, Thailand and Nepal besides all parts of the country will gather here for ‘Global Shanti’, one of the themes of the festival. “We expect a gathering of nearly 2000 monks who would be part of the insightful sessions,” said Himanshu Shukla, CEO of APTA.
“As part of this festival, we also aim to orchestrate global chant for world peace world over with Amaravati as the centre,” he said.
The festival was initially planned in January but had to be deferred by a month as the Buddhist leader Dalai Lama is participating in programmes at Bodh Gaya.
Shanti yatras on all three days of the festival by the participating monks, school and college students, bureaucrats and politicians, a heritage walk, performance by Shaolin monks of China and cultural performances by artists from the US, Singapore and China will be some of the highlights.
Organisations and individuals who cannot make it to Vijayawada can connect through digital platform at the designated time, said Mr. Shukla. The ancient Amaravathi town in Guntur district, close to Vijayawada city, is speckled with historically important Buddhist sites. That Buddhism flourished here is evident in the ruins of impressive structures still found in some parts. These sites have relics important to all three sects of Buddhism, something that has inspired the government to establish Amaravathi as a global centre for unity and peace. Curated tours to Buddhist sites will be on offer for nominal fee.
