BUDDHISTS FROM ASIAN COUNTRIES PRAY FOR WORLD PEACE AT BOROBUDUR

Borobudur, C Java, March 6 (ANTARA) - Hundreds of Buddhists from several Asian countries gathered at the ancient Borobudur Temple in Magelang district, Central Java, on Friday to offer special prayers for world peace.

The participants in the prayer service had come from China, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Indonesian cities of Jakarta, Medan, Semarang and Surabaya, according to Redi Nusantara, the event's coordinator.
Organized by the Wajrayana Nusantara Foundation, the prayer service would last until Sunday, March 8, 2009, and be led by a dozen monks from Tibet, India, Bhutan, Nepal, and China, he said.
"We have been holding this annual prayer service at Borobudur Temple over the past eight years, but this year we are doing it on a larger scale than usual," Nsantara said.
He said the prayers for world peace this year were to be marked by the lighting of one million candles at the temple from Friday to Sunday (March 6-8, 2009).
"We will pray for the preservation of world peace and the speedy end of the global financial crisis," he said, adding that Buddhist communities around the world wanted to make Borobudur Temple the center of their joint religious activities.
The Buddhist community in Tibet still remember that one of their most revered monks in the past, named Artisa Dipangkara, hailed from Java. He lived during the era of the Syailanedra kingdom in Java but eventually settled in Tibet before the Borobudur Temple was built.