Narendra Modi presents 'Urga Kanjur' to Buddist temple head priest

St Petersburg: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today presented over 100 volumes of 'Urga Kanjur' to the head priest of the Datsan Gunzechoinei Buddhist Temple here.

'Urga Kanjur' is a sacred Tibetan Buddhist text.

 "PM presents Urga Kanjur to Jampa Donor, Buda Balzheivich Badmayev, Head Priest, Datsan Gunzechoinei Buddhist Temple, St Petersburg," Office of the Prime Minister said in a tweet.

Modi, who is on an official visit here, met President Vladimir Putin yesterday.

The Urga edition of the Tibetan Kanjur was unknown till 1955 when Prof Raghu Vira brought to India its complete set of 104 volumes with a volume containing the catalogue. It was presented to him by Mongolian prime minister as a unique bibliographic rarity.

On the second day of his Russia visit, Modi visited Institute of Oriental Manuscripts. He also left a message in Gujarati language at the institute, said a tweet by the Indian Embassy in Moscow.

The institute has manuscripts and early printed books consisting of more than 100 thousand items in 65 living and dead languages.

It also has the archives of the Orientalists that contains some valuable documents on the history of the Oriental Studies in Russia. It has manuscripts and xylographs.

He also met Tigran Sargasyan, Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission and former Prime Minister of Armenia.

India and Russia yesterday agreed on early commencement of negotiations for a free trade agreement with the five- nation Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).