Prime Minister Modi has often recalled his days as a tea-seller while addressing gatherings in India and abroad.
Dickoya, Sri Lanka: “I have a special association with tea” was how Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an instant connect with the Tamil community members here in the tea-growing Central Province of Sri Lanka.
Mr Modi, in his address, lauded the Ceylon Tea, saying it was world famous but what was lesser known was the sweat and labour behind it. “You and I have something in common. I have a special association with tea,” Mr Modi said. “Chai pe Charcha or discussions over tea is mark of deep respect for dignity and integrity of honest labour,” he said.
Prime Minister Modi has often recalled his days as a tea-seller while addressing gatherings in India and abroad.
The PM also visited Sri Lanka’s iconic Buddhist Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy and offered floral prayers. Mr Modi, who is here on a two-day trip, went around the Sri Dalada Maligawa temple, an architectural wonder housing shared religious heritage.
“Blessed to be at the Sri Dalada Maligawa Temple in Kandy. This is a centre of immense spiritual importance,” Mr Modi said in a tweet. “PM @narendramodi at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy. Offered floral prayers in sanctum of Sri Dalada Maligawa Temple,” tweeted Gopal Baglay, spokesperson with the ministry of external affairs. “An architectural wonder housing shared religious heritage,” Mr Baglay tweeted.
The Sri Dalada Maligawa temple or the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is located in the royal palace complex of the former Kingdom of Kandy, which houses the relic of the tooth of the Buddha. The actual chamber in which the tooth relic is kept is known as “Handun Kunama”. The PM also said Sinhala and Tamil communities in Sri Lanka should strengthen unity and harmony as he assured India’s full support to the steps taken by Colombo to improve the living conditions of minority Tamils in the country.
“Diversity calls for celebration and not confrontation. Sinhala and Tamil people and languages existed harmoniously,” Mr Modi told the Tamils of Indian origin in Dickoya town in the tea growing Central Province of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is still recovering from the wounds of a nearly three-decade long bloody civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which fought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and the east of the island.
