Special Officer of the Buddhavanam Project in Telangana Mallepalli Laxmaiah on Monday called on Sri Lanka Minister for Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Vidura Vikramanayake in Colombo.
Mr. Laxmaiah invited the Minister to visit the Buddhavanam Project near Nagarjunasagar Project and explained the unique features of the Buddhist theme park developed by the Telangana Government. He informed about the new project being taken up in the name of “The 2,500 years journey of Buddhism” in one segment of the project in which the spread of Buddhism in South-East Asian Countries would be depicted in separate cave-like structures for each country.
The Special Officer invited the Sri Lankan Minister to grace the occasion of laying the foundation stone for the new project scheduled on October 14. According to a press release issued by the Buddhavanam Project office here, while agreeing to the invitation, Mr. Vikramanayake suggested entering a memorandum of understanding between Government of Telangana and Sri Lanka to establish a Sri Lanka-Telangana Friendship Centre at Hyderabad.
The Sri Lankan Minister proposed that the centre could exchange academic and cultural programmes with meetings at Hyderabad and Colombo alternately once every three months.
Consultant on Buddhism project Sivanagi Reddy explained the Sri Lankan Minister the 1,700-year-old Buddhist connection between the Telugu and Sri Lankan people. Mr. Laxmaiah also called on the Secretary int eh Ministry of Buddhasasana Somarathne Vidanapathirana and invited him to Buddhavanam. Mr. Vidanapathirana presented a book on 2,600 years of Buddhatva to Mr. Laxmaiah.
Director General of Central Cultural Fund, Sri Lanka, Gamini Ranasinghe participated in the two meetings.
