Junta leaders visit Bodhgaya temple to pray, donate funds

Monday, 26 July 2010 20:23 Mizzima News

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Junta leader Senior General Than Shwe and his entourage took a chartered flight yesterday to the revered Buddhist site of Bodhgaya, where they offered prayers and gave cash donations at the Mahabodhi Temple today, during an official visit to India, according to Indian media reports and monks.

The chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the Burmese military junta’s name for itself, Than Shwe, at the head of an 81-member delegation, visited Bodhgaya, the site attributed as the location of Siddhartha Gautama’s (Buddha’s) enlightenment, last night and this morning.

burma-army-chief-thanshwe1sThey arrived at the temple beside which stands the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha meditated, at about 5 a.m. today, offered prayers and meditated for about five hours, then presented the temple with a donation of US$11,282 and 6,000 Indian rupees (about US$128), a monk said.

“They made prayers and practised meditation in the temple for five hours”, a monk named Chalinda, one of the temple’s board of trustees, told Mizzima. “We have received three envelopes which contain money. The first was donated by Senior General Than Shwe, and the others were donated by the general’s colleagues.”

Than Shwe and his wife Kyaing Kyaing, recited Buddha’s first sermon, the Dhammacakka Sutta at Mahabodhi Temple on Sunday, a Burmese novice monk in India told Mizzima.

Despite being the subject of a boycott since 2007 by some monks at home and abroad whereby they have refused to accept offerings from members of the military government or their families, the junta couple also offered food to monks in a Burmese monastery in Bodhgaya on Monday morning.

The delegation comprises 81 people including SPDC members General Thura Shwe Mann, SPDC Secretary-1 General Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, Lieutenant General Min Aung Hlaing of the Ministry of Defence, Adjutant-General Lieutenant General Thura Myint Aung, and their wives, state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported.

Moreover, Minister for Industry-2 Soe Thein, Minister for Foreign Affairs Nyan Win, Minister for Information Kyaw Hsan, Minister for Commerce Tin Naing Thein, Minister for Science and Technology Thaung, Minister for Health Dr. Kyaw Myint, Minister for Religious Affairs Myint Maung, Posts and Telegraphs Minister Thein Zaw, Minister for National Planning and Economic Development Soe Tha, were part of the delegation.

After Bodhgaya, the entourage planned to visit Varanasi, where Buddha preached his first sermon, before flying to the Indian capital New Delhi tonight, Indian newspapers reported.

The delegation landed in New Delhi at 6:30 p.m. and had checked in to the ITC Maurya five-star luxury hotel, according to the hotel manager.

Some Burmese monks, both inside the country and in exile, declared a religious boycott against the SPDC from September 18, 2007 after junta suppression against their protests over fuel price increases led to a nationwide uprising. The monks have rejected donations from any SPDC members or their families.

Security forces beat protesting monks in Pakokku Township, Magway Division, on September 5, 2007, over which the monks called for an apology from the junta. The rejection of that plea for an apology for the violence resulted in the widespread protests against the junta in 2007 known as the “saffron revolution” led by monks but joined by thousands of Burmese across the country.