Sri Lanka fetes Myanmar junta leader on rare foreign trip
World
Sri Lanka fetes Myanmar junta leader on rare foreign trip
Dozens of dancers, drummers and three elephants greeted Myanmar's reclusive junta leader as the elderly general began a pilgrimage in Sri Lanka Friday on a rare foreign trip. Schoolchildren cheered and waved paper flags of both countries and passers-by took pictures as the visiting leader's motorcade slowly drove through the narrow streets of the central Buddhist pilgrimage city of Kandy. General Than Shwe and his wife Daw Kyaing Kyaing, both dressed in white tunic tops and gold embroided sarongs, clasped their hands in prayer as a saffron-robed Buddhist monk invoked blessings on their arrival. Their 26-member entourage later moved to pray and meditate at the historic Temple of the Sacred Tooth relic that was once bombed by the now defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 1998.
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