The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Maithripala Sirisena, President of Sri Lanka was present along with and Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay during the Guard of Honor presented to Lyonchhen at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo earlier on Friday. The Air Force Band of Sri Lanka played the National Anthems of Bhutan and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. This was followed by firing of 19 Gun Salute by the Sri Lankan Army.
Lyonchhen Tshering Tob-gay today met with the Presi¬dent of Sri Lanka, the Cabi¬net Ministers of Sri Lanka and the Bhutanese delega¬tion in a meeting on Friday. Lyonchhen conveyed the good wishes of His Majesty the King of Bhutan to the government and people of Sri Lanka to the President.
Apart from the discussions on bilateral, regional and glob-al matters, the two leaders dis¬cussed education, health, avia¬tion and tourism.
President of the of Sri Lanka
and LyonchhenTshering Tob¬gaywitnessed the Signing of a Memorandum of Understand¬ing for Foreign Office Consul¬tations this morning between the Acting Foreign Secretary and the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka.
Lyonchhen Tshering Tob¬gay was called on by Sarath Amunugama, Minister of Higher Education and Re-search of Sri Lanka this after-noon.
Lyonchhen thanked the minister for giving the Bhuta¬nese students opportunities to
study in Sri Lanka.
Currently, there are about 200 Bhutanese students study¬ing medicine spread across three major universities in Sri Lanka.Lyonpo Mingbo Dukpa, Minister for Ministry of Edu¬cation also attended the meet¬ing.
Lyonchhen Tshering Tob-gaywas also called on by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, Min¬ister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka.
Earlier Lyonchhen Tsher¬ing Tobgay who is on an official visit to Sri Lanka on the invita
tion of President Maithripala Sirisena arrived at Colombo, Sri Lanka on Thursday morn¬ing. On arrival at the Banda¬ranaike International Airport Lyonchhen was received by Mangala Samaraweera, Min¬ister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka. After receiving a warm welcome extended by the gov¬ernment and people of Sri Lanka, Lyonchhen signed the ‘Golden Book’.
On thursday afternoon Ly¬onchhen and his delegation visited the Kelaniya Temple and Gangaramaya Temple. At the temples Lyonchhen and his delegations visited differ¬ent shrines of Lord Buddha and paidhomage and received blessings from the enlightened one. Lyonchhen also “watered” and offered “cloth” (Namza) to the Holy Bodhi Trees at Kelani¬ya and Gangaramaya Temples. At Gangaramaya temple Lyon-chhen and the delegates were very happy to find out that The Fourth Druk Gyalpo, His Maj¬esty Jigme Singye Wangchuck had laid the foundation stone for the inauguration for the Bodhi Tree. The delegations
also got the opportunity to re-ceive blessing from the sacred relics of Lord Buddha.
On thursday evening Ly-onchhen and his delegation hosted a reception dinner for the medical students studying in Colombo. Speaking to the students Lyonchhen shared his personal observation on how well the Bodhi Tree- whose foundation stone was laid by The Fourth Druk Gyalpo was maintained by the monks at the Gangaramay Temple, thereby reminding the gather¬ing about the responsibilities bestowed upon them for tak¬ing care of the country whose foundation was laid by the Druk Gyalpo. ‘If we follow the path of our King, we will never go wrong’ Lyonchhen said.
Lyonchhen thanked the students for working hard to becoming doctors and asked them to work harder. He also advised the student to make best use of their stay in Sri Lanka by learning more about the country, visiting museums, holy sites, etc. There are about 200 students mostly medical in Sri Lanka.
