A press release issued by the Indian High Commission in Colombo said an agreement has been signed between the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India and M/s Icons India for the preparation of the 16-feet tall statue to mark the 2600 Sambuddhatva Jayanthi occasion.
The two governments have agreed to jointly commemorate the 2600th year of the attainment of enlightenment by Lord Buddha in a joint declaration issued during the President Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to India in June 2010.
Pradeep Nilanga Dela Bandara, the Diyawadana Nilame (Custodian) of Sri Dalada Maligawa, has welcomed the proposal to install the Buddha statue in the Sarnath style at the Museum in Kandy.
According to the release, the Sarnath Buddha idol is an exquisite sculpture based on the famous 5th Century Gupta Period idol from Sarnath, where Buddha preached his first sermon after attaining enlightenment. The idol in the Dharmachakra pravartana mudra (turning the wheel of law) and its pedestal will be carved out of a single piece of beige-colored Chunar sandstone to be sourced from Mirzapur (near Varanasi, India).
As a part of the joint commemoration of the Sambuddhatva Jayanthi an Indian Gallery at the International Buddhist Museum will be established and an International Buddhist Conference will be organized in Kandy early next year (before end March) with the support of the Indian Council of Cultural relations (ICCR).
An expert appointed by the National Museum of India is working on putting together Indian Buddhist artifacts that portray the Buddhist art, culture and heritage of India in its entirety, the High Commission said.
The process of identifying the important statutes/artifacts related to Buddhism in India has started and the fabrication of replicas is being undertaken.
Indian and Sri Lankan governments are in the process of considering other joint activities to commemorate the Sambuddhatva Jayanthi, the Indian High Commission informed.
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