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Ancient city replicas and holograms to recreate life and times of Lord Buddha at UN Vesak Day celebrations
View(s):The public will get their first glimpse of a replica of the Sakya Kingdom of ancient India which is being recreated at Kahapola, Piliyandala to coincide with the UN Vesak festival which gets underway from May 11-14. As part of the elaborate programme, visitors will see a replica of the Garden at Lumbini where Siddhartha Gautama was born, as well as the palace complex he lived in more than 2,600 years ago.
The Rs 500 million project, based on a concept of the Light of Asia Foundation, is scheduled to be implemented in four stages. Other ancient cities like Lumbini, Buddhagaya, Isipathanaramaya, Nalanda, and Kusinara, too, will be recreated. The construction process is monitored by experts including Basanta Bidari, former Chief Archaeologist at Lumbini and Kapilavastu, and all the buildings will be true to ancient architecture.
Sites related to the Lord Buddha’s life, e-library facilities, libraries, media stations, meditation centres, herbal gardens, and state-of-the art infrastructure facilities for devotees will be built on the 78 acres provided by the Ministry of Buddha Sasana. Hologram technology will be used to tell the story of the Lord Buddha.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari will be among the foreign dignitaries participating in the UN Vesak Day celebrations. Mr. Modi will join President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to inaugurate the three-day celebrations.
The main ceremony will be held on May 12 at the BMICH, Colombo with the participation of local and international dignitaries. That evening, delegates will participate in a special Vesak Cultural Festival at Diyatha Uyana, organised by the Ministry of Megapolis and Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya.
The academic conference, which is held annually as part of UN Vesak celebrations, will be held on May 13 at the BMICH on the theme, ‘Buddhist teachings for social justice and sustainable peace’. The conference will focus on four themes: Social and natural justice from a Buddhist perspective, Inter-religious understanding of common future for humankind, Buddhist forum for economics and promotion of cultural tourism and International Buddhist media network. A session will be allocated for papers dealing with multiple aspects of social justice, and a round-table symposium has been planned for other themes.
Upali Wijayaweera, project coordinator of the Diyawannawa Special Vesak Zone, said plans have been made to conduct the event on a grand scale. He added the Diyawanna area will be illuminated with hundreds of rotating and floating lanterns, digital pandals and laser light displays. He said an artificial waterfall annexing the Polduwa Bridge will be built, as well as a 100-foot, colourful fountain in the Diyatha Uyana premises.
Secretary of the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Chandraprema Gamage, told the Sunday Times that all arrangements had been made for the UN Vesak celebrations. He added that preparation activities were being monitored by 11 committees. He said that out of the 84 countries invited, 72 had already confirmed their participation, and over 750 foreign and 850 local visitors were expected to participate in the event. A special welcome ceremony has been arranged for the foreign delegates at the airport. The road from Peliyagoda to Colombo will be decorated to mark the event. Decorations in Colombo City will commence by May 9, he said.    Â
- Akash Widanapathirana Â