Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is attending the 18th SAARC Summit taking place in Nepal is to visit the Charumati monastery at Chabahil in the capital city of Kathmandu, the Himalayan Times reported.

President Rajapaksa is scheduled to perform puja at the Chaurmati Bouddha monastery, the report said qouting Bhikkhu Tapaswi Dhamma.

Rajapaksa, as the president of Sri Lanka, is coming to Nepal for the second time.

Charumati monastery has been a symbol of Nepal-Sri Lanka relations after Charumati, daughter of the Mourya emperor Ashok, came to Nepal as a religious envoy from Mourya of ancient India and set up the monastery some 2,300 years back.

Similarly, another daughter of emperor Sanghamitra and son Mahendra were the religious envoys to Sri Lanka.

President of the World Youth Buddhist Monks Association Nepal branch and Chief of the Charumati Buddha Vihar, Bhikkhu Tapaswi Dhamma said the Buddhist country Sri Lanka and the Buddha followers there are well aware about the Charumati monastery and revere it much.

He added that Sri Lankan Ambassador to Nepal has already visited it. The Monastery was renovated a decade ago.

Moreover, the Sri Lankan ‘Mahavamsa’ mentions that the relatives of King Ashoka had migrated to Ruhunu, south belt of Sri Lanka during the time of Gautam Buddha.

Later, during the Juddha Shumsher’s era, among eight monks exiled from Nepal, including Amritanand, Subodhanand, Pragya Rashmi, Kumar Kashyap and Mahanam had reached India, then Burma and Sri Lanka (Amritanand). They were however returned from Sri Lanka and restored to Nepal.

Nepal and Sri Lanka established the diplomatic relations on July 2, 1958.

As per the Charumati perspective, there will be repair and renovation, and construction of a pond on the monastery premises.

Kathmandu Metropolis is painting the Monastery from Monday.