Bhubaneswar: With an aim to promote world peace and tourism, a Tipitaka chanting ceremony was hosted at the Buddhist triangle of Odisha - Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri, Udayagiri.

For the first time in Odisha, all the three sects of Buddhism - Mahayana, Theravada, Bajarayana - have come together.

Hosted by Light of Buddha Dharma International, Berkeley, California, around 110 Buddhist monks, scholars and preachers from countries including China, Thailand, Myanmar, Tibet and India took part in the programme.

Prasit, a monk from Thailand, said: "Ratnagiri and Lalitgiri sites are amazing. Chanting of prayers amidst ruins of old legacy helped us to get connected with our past."

Wangmo Dixey, president of International Buddhist Association of America and executive director of the organisation, said: "We have been travelling to all the sacred sites in India. We started with Sarnath then went to New Delhi, Sankasya, Kushinagar, Sravasti, Vaishali, Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Nalanda and finally concluded it here in Odisha. We believe that this is the right time, now almost 2,600 years since the passing of Lord Buddha, for the light of dharma to come back to India."

"We are planning to conduct this next year also and involve more monks from various places," said Dixey.

"Odisha Tourism is trying to promote all the important Buddhist sites in the state. Such events will attract more monks and Buddhist communities from across the world in future which in turn would attract tourists," said tourism director Nitin Jawale.