On July 30, 31 and August 1,  the Maitreya Project Relic Tour will come to the home of Suru Manek, on Peppertree Drive in La Habra Heights.  Suru, who also goes by the name Raj Manek, is a man of Indian descent who grew up in Kenya before coming to California. His great grandfather was from Mumbai, and the family is from a caste called Lohana who were originally sword makers and warriors from Afghanistan and Iran. In India they became traders and business people. Suru is himself a Hindu.

So how did he become involved in the Maitreya Project and the Relic Tour. To begin, Hindus, scholars report, see Buddha as the avatar for the Hindu god Vishnu. They see little conflict between Buddhists’ beliefs and practices and their own. 

The Maitreya Project seeks to build a 500 foot bronze statue of the future Buddha Maitreya in Kushenagar, Uttar Pradesh and another 150 foot statue  in Bihar state.  Both areas of India have a very low literacy rate along with a very high level of poverty. The projects, which will also include throne buildings and parks, will bring employment and commerce to the two areas, along with acting as a catalyst for education, health care and tourism.

Presumably the Relic Tour will raise funds for the project although there is no cost to see the relics.

The tour displays 1,000 sacred Buddhist relics which will eventually be within the heart of the statue in Kushenagar. Each relic  is a pearl-like crystal found among the cremation ashes of various Buddhist masters. Buddhists believe the relics are created in the fire as a result of the individual master’s spiritual qualities of compassion and wisdom. Among the relics on display will be eight of the first Buddha that the Dalai Lama has offered for the tour.

The tour also includes relics of that Buddha’s closest disciples and other well known Buddhist masters from a variety of different Buddhist traditions which arose in Burma, Indonesian, France, Thailand, Tibet, Korea and Taiwan.