By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Over 80 persons, including children embraced Buddhism during the Buddhists Renaissance Conference at Guduvanchery here on Sunday. The event was attended by hundreds of Buddhism followers. Monk Vinaya Rakkhita Bhante from Bengaluru headed the ceremony.

Almost all people cited caste and gender discrimination in Hinduism as the reason for embracing Buddhism, a religion, they feel, treats all equal. “Buddhism teaches equality and also how to respect fellow human being. I have faced discrimination indirectly during my college days also.

We are historically Buddhists, so I call it as reversion,” said S Suganes, working as an assistant professor in a government medical college. He was referring to a widely held belief that most of the Dalits were originally Buddhists, before Hinduism again emerged as the majority religion in the country.

“Buddhism is in my roots, so I’m going back to it,” said D Manimegalai, a 24-year-old graduate, who was one of those who converted to Buddhism.

The conference was organised by Mass Movement for Transformation (MMT), an association for Buddhists. The association also passed resolutions that Buddha Dhamma classes should be organised in all districts.

The Young People’s Buddhist Association (YPBA) should be established for youngsters to learn Dhamma, the Buddhist holy text. It also adopted a resolution to identify statues of Buddha and Buddhist small deities which are scattered and buried all over Tamil Nadu.