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A GIFTING ceremony was held at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Maiden Gully on Tuesday afternoon, where Buddhist relics were presented to Stupa chairman Ian Green.
The gifts were offered on behalf of his holiness Somdet Phramaharatchamangkhalachan, the Supreme Patriarch of Thai Buddhists by his disciple Phrakhru Phawananuwat.
Mr Green said the relics were precious items left behind when a Buddha or highly realised Buddhist teacher is cremated.
"Quite often they take the form of pearls or crystals and if you look carefully at the ones from today, some of them were crystals and some were like pearls," he said.
"To a Buddhist they're considered to be almost the same as if the Buddha was in the room because the word relic in this context means the essence of, so you can imagine the essence of the Buddha's wisdom and compassion is distilled down to those items."
For his part, Phrakhru Phawananuwat thanked Mr Green for donating the land on which the Great Stupa sits, saying he didn't originally intend to donate the relics.
"Upon hearing of Mr Ian's purpose and intention for the Stupa, I decided that these holy relics would be best suited to the Great Stupa in Bendigo," he said.
Phrakhru Phawananuwat concluded by observing that in the process of executing big projects and performing good deeds, there would always be obstacles.
"I hope that these obstacles would challenge your perceived limitations, may they be the force that would protect and assist you toward a successful outcome in the end," he said.