GORAKHPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first PM to have offered prayers at Kushinagar's Mahaparinirvan Temple on the occasion of Buddha Purnima.
On Monday, he visited Lumbini in Nepal, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, and returned to Kushinagar in the evening, before travelling to Lucknow where he held a meeting with chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the new cabinet ministers.
Officials said that the PM landed at the new Kushinagar International Airport around 4.50 pm from where he went directly to Mahaparinirvan Temple, the place where Lord Buddha is said to have achieved nirvana. "The PM offered prayers at the reclining idol of Lord Buddha in the Mahaparinirvan Temple. He also offered a chadar at the statue of Lord Buddha in the presence of Buddhist priests.
The PM also offered chadars to the priests who in turn presented him a statue of Lord Buddha," a government spokesperson said.
On Monday morning, the PM reached Kushinagar airport by an Indian Air Force special aircraft at 9.27 am where he was welcomed by local MLAs and MPs. These included Kushinagar MP Vijay Dubey, Deoria MP Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Kushinagar MLA PN Pathak, Khadda MLA Vivekanand Pandey, Tamkuhiraj MAL Aseem Rai, Padrouna MLA Manish Jaiswal, Hata MLA Mohan Verma and top state officials like chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, DGP Devendra Singh Chauhan, ADG Akhil Kumar, commissioner Gorakhpur Ravi Kumar NG, Kushinagar DM S Rajalingam and Kushinagar SP Dhawal.The PM departed for Lumbini in a chopper from a specially prepared helipad at 9.40 am. At Lumbini, he attended Buddha Jayanti celebration at the International Convention Centre and Mediation Hall at Lumbini in Nepal and also visited the Mayadevi Temple.
