PTI (Press Trust of India), October 15, 2006

Mumbai, India -- Relics of Gautama Buddha will soon be brought to this city to be placed above the keystone of what is claimed to be the world's largest stone-built dome at Gorai Island in north Mumbai.

The dome is part of a pagoda being built by the Global Vipassana Foundation at a cost of Rs 80 crore.

The construction of the entire complex -- consisting of the main pagoda which will be 96.12 metres high, and four smaller ones with a height of 23 metres each -- will be complete in a year, the Foundation said.

To put it in perspective, the main pagoda will be as high as a 30-storey skyscraper.

The centrepiece of this complex, a 100-foot central dome built of stone, is complete. The Foundation is going to place relics of Gautama Buddha in a small chamber above the top keystone of the dome in a ceremony on October 29.

The relics were donated by the Mahabodhi Society.

The Foundation has requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to do the honours, but it is yet to be confirmed whether he will attend the ceremony.

The pagoda with the gigantic stone dome was conceived by S N Goenka, who made the ancient Vipassana -- a technique of meditation traced back to the Buddha himself -- popular across the world.

The pagoda will be a huge Vipassana centre that can accomodate around 8,000 people at a time. The land on which it stands was donated by media baron, Subhash Chandra Goyal, himself a Vipassana practitioner.