The fourteenth Tibetan Dalai Tenzin Gyatso, on Friday, inaugurated a three-day international Buddhist meet in Bihar’s Nalanda district. He lit a traditional lamp to mark the start of the meeting at Rajgir of Nalanda. The conference is mainly to describe the relevance, perspective and Global challenges of Buddhism in the 21st century. According to officials, some thousand delegates of 35 countries from all over the globe are attending the meet. India’s Cultural Union Minister Mahesh Sharma was present at the opening ceremony of the event. President of India Mr. President Pranab Mukherjee will also attend the concluding ceremony of the conference.
The conference at Rajgir International Convention Centre (RICC), has been organized jointly by Union Ministry of Culture and Nava Nalanda Mahavihara (NNM) — a deemed university. This conclave is the first serious academic discussion on Buddhism by the organizers.
About 1000 delegates from 35 countries, including Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Germany, and Singapore are expected to be a part of this Buddhist meet. And several Buddhist monks also will participate in this conference.
Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel laureate the Dalai Lama hailed the secularism prevailing in India and described himself as a “son of India”. “I am living in India since last 58 years and hence, I am a ‘son of India’,” the Dalai Lama said.
According to Mr. Lama although India’s constitution and laws have not defined the relationship between religion and state, but in the field of secularism, India is the best. There is no any other country like India. He added, “When I came to India, I developed a broader thought about Tibet and Buddhism as well as about the entire world,”
This is the first time in India; a Buddhist conference is being organized on such a large scale. A lot of technical sessions will be there in the conclave of the Nalanda. All the participants will discuss the various aspects of Buddhism and the teaching of Lord Buddha. The sessions have been reprinted in Devanagari language, after a gap of 5 years gap, and will be released by Nobel Laureate Dalai Lama. Sessions will be on Buddhist scripture, The Tripitaka, a 41 volume of Devnagari word text of Lord Buddha.
“Whatever I have learned is due to the learnings and thought of the Nalanda”, said Mr. Lama. He also added that one of the important aspects of Buddhism is the Nalanda thought.
The Dalai Lama stressed on the good education which will help to develop tolerance among mankind and also it will develop the habit of forgiveness. “Today’s education system is making us a customer and consumer. The traditional mode of education will bring the culture of good education,” he said at Rajgir. “The historic site Nalanda University is drawing the international attention and this is the right place to express our thoughts”.
President of India Pranab Mukhopadhyay is scheduled to attend the conference on 19th March 2017.
