LUMBINI, (Nepal) — A stone statue of U Thant, a former sec-retary general of the United Na-tions, was unveiled in Lumbini on Friday as a public reminder of his contributions to developing the Buddha’s birthplace.

Japanese businessman Tok-ushin Kasai, a devout Buddhist who funded construction of the statue and a garden it is installed in, said at an unveiling ceremony in the morning that the statue would remind generations to come of U Thant’s role in Lum-bini’s development.

Kasai runs the Hotel Kasai in Lumbini, one of the major des-tinations for Buddhist tourists.

Burmese-born U Thant headed the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, being the first non-European to hold the position.

He visited Lumbini in 1967 only to be shocked by its state of neglect. He is credited with kick-starting efforts to develop the holy site as a global center for Buddhism.

His visit was followed, three years later, by the formation of the UN-sponsored International Committee for the Development of Lumbini. It entrusted Japa-nese architect Kenzo Tange with forming a master plan, adopted in 1978, for developing a central 8-square-kilometer area into what s now known as the Sacred Gar-den.

The master plan served as the blueprint to develop the place following Buddhist symbolism.

“What Lumbini is today all started with the compassionate and committed vision of U Thant,” said Hridaya Ratna Bajracharya, vice chancellor of Lumbini Bud-dhist University. However, Thant Myint-U, grandson of U Thant and chairman of Yangon Herit-age Trust, was modest about his grandfather’s contribution.

“I suppose that Lumbini be-ing such an important site, sacred site, the birthplace of Buddha, it was going to recognized in some way anyway,” he said after jointly unveiling the statue with Kasai.“

I am very happy to see that my grandfather U Thant’s vision is coming to fruition,” he added. — Kyodo News