Every year on the last Sunday of November, the Mahabodhi Mahotsav is celebrated in Sanchi. On this day, the ossuaries of Lord Buddha’s disciples Sariputra and Mahamuglayan are taken out of the basement and worshipped. The event will take place on November 27.
Due to Corona infection, this event has not been organized for two years, but this year is marked by more enthusiasm about the event as a whole.
The two-day Mahabodhi Mahotsav began on Saturday at Buddha Jambudweep Park in Sanchi. In spite of the Covid-19 restrictions being in place in recent years, this is one of the most popular cultural events in the country, drawing thousands of Buddhists from all over the country and abroad every year. This year’s event is being organized on a massive scale.
In the past seven decades, Mahabodhi Mahotsav hasn’t been discontinued once since it was organized in 1952. We also organized symbolic events in Sanchi during the Covid years. The event is expected to attract 25000 people daily, including 1500-2000 foreign Buddhists from Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, Sri Lanka, and Japan,” said Aditi Kumar Tripathi, director of culture.
According to the culture director, some VIPs are among the foreign tourists attending the festival.
Milinda Moragoda, Sri Lanka’s ambassador in India, will attend, as will many spiritual leaders. It is a revered Buddhist pilgrimage center where the mortal remains of two of Buddha’s chief disciples are enshrined; it is also an important Indic Buddhist site that promotes the principles of Panchsheel, togetherness, harmony, and peace.
MP’s culture and tourism principal secretary, Sheoshekhar Shukla, has said that the state’s culture department must promote events that showcase the best of the state’s attractions.
Japanese folk dances, songs, Sri Lankan songs, and Jataka tales will be performed on stage by MP artists as part of an impressive line-up of colorful events. A Kavi sammelan, as well as Badhai and Naurata dance, would also be performed to add some ethnic flavor to the event, Mr. Tripathi said.
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