The Sri Lankan delegation consisted of three of its four Mahanayakas who, for the first time, met the Dalai Lama bilaterally.

This engagement comes weeks after Sri Lanka got a new president and days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country, where he had met the Mahanayakas and offered prayers at the sacred Mahabodhi tree.

By engaging the Mahanayakas, who wield political influence over the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, India also hopes to prevent the possible return of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, as PM, after the parliamentary elections. In the recent presidential polls, Maithripala Sirisena and Rajapaksa had shared the Buddhist vote almost equally but the former won due to his massive lead among minority voters.

By reaffirming India’s historical leadership of the Buddhist world and projecting its Buddhist links in the region, Delhi is evidently trying to counter efforts by China to extend its sphere of influence.

As governor of Fujian province, President Xi Jinping had actively played the Buddhist card and Beijing continues to further its agenda through the world fellowship of Buddhists. Of course, Chinese claims of promoting Buddhism are ironic because Beijing represses the religion in the country, violently so in Tibet.
By engaging Buddhist influencers and opinion-makers globally, Delhi aims to exercise soft-power diplomacy to secure the unity of Tibetan Buddhism under the Dalai Lama’s leadership, and arguably ensure for itself a key role in the post-Dalai Lama scenario.