Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee monks and secretary offer prayer to the Bodhi tree sapling before being sent to the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday. Picture by Suman

Buddhist devotees in Vietman would now feel blessed.

A sapling of the sacred Bodhi (peepal) tree on the campus of the World Heritage Mahabodhi Mahavihara would be taken to the Southeast Asian country later this month.

On Sunday, the sapling was taken to New Delhi from where it would travel with President Pranab Mukherjee to Vietnam. The President would gift the sapling to his counterpart Truong Tan Sang during his visit later this month.

Special prayers were held before the statue of Buddha in the sanctum sanctorum of the Mahavihara and also under the Bodhi tree on the Mahavihara campus on Sunday morning to seek blessings so that the sapling grows into a tree when planted in Vietnam.

The chief monk of the Mahavihara, Bhikkhu Chalinda, and others from Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC) secretary Nangzey Dorjee offered the prayers.

Dorjee said the ministry of external affairs had sent a letter to Gaya district magistrate-cum-BTMC chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal last month. It was mentioned in the letter that the President of India would gift the sapling to the Vietnam President. Permission was sought from the home department and after clearance, the sapling has been sent to the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi.

An employee of BTMC and a forest department official left for New Delhi on Sunday with the sapling. The sapling is a descendant of the Bodhi tree. It was grown from a seed of the tree. “Such saplings are sent abroad with permission of the Bihar government,” the BTMC secretary said.

Mahavihara chief monk Bhikkhu Chalinda said according to historical records, a sapling of the original peepal tree in Bodhgaya under which Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment was taken to Sri Lanka by Sanghamitra, the daughter of Emperor Asoka around 288 BC.