April 23 - The sacred relics of Buddha Shakyamuni and other Buddhist masters will go on display during the Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour exhibition to be held around the country.
The exhibition will first stop in Penang at two venues.
It will be held at Penang’s Than Hsiang Temple in Bayan Lepas from May 3 (11am to 7pm) to May 6 (10am to 5pm).
The opening hours on May 4 and 5 are from 10am to 7pm.
At the Chokyi Gyaltsen Centre in Air Itam, the relics can be viewed from May 10 to May 12 (10am to 7pm) and May 13 (10am to 5pm).
Then the exhibition will make its way to the Losang Drakpa Centre in Selangor.
Chokyi Gyaltsen Centre vice-president Justin Khoo said admission to the exhibition was free and the public could view sacred relics from India, Tibet, China and other countries.
“These relics were found among the ashes of Buddhist masters after they were cremated. The relics resemble beautiful pearl-like crystals known as ‘ringsel’ in the Tibetan language,” he told a press conference at the Than Hsiang Temple.
“Buddhists believe ringsel embody the master’s spiritual qualities of compassion and wisdom and are said to be deliberately produced by the master at his time of death,” he said.
Also present was temple abbot Venerable Wei Wu.
The exhibition was started in 2001 by Buddhist master Lama Zopa Rinpoche who was born in Nepal. He remains as the tour’s spiritual director.
The tour has been to 69 countries and over 2.3mil people have viewed the relics.