ANURADHAPURA: Large flag-waving crowds greeted Myanmar’s junta leader General Than Shwe today as he toured an ancient city in north-central Sri Lanka on a religious pilgrimage.

The crowds, clutching flags of Myanmar and Sri Lanka, lined the streets of the sacred Buddhist city of Anuradhapura to welcome the reclusive general, who has been on his first overseas visit since 2004.

Speaking through an interpreter, Than Shwe told the crowd: “I am happy to be here and I look forward to touring the Buddhist shrines.” Heavy monsoon rains forced the general to travel by car rather than helicopter to the temple-studded city, delaying his arrival by five hours.

The general arrived in Colombo on Thursday with his wife, daughters and grandchildren on a religious pilgrimage to Sri Lanka.

The tropical island nation and Myanmar both practice Buddhism and have had cultural and religious ties since the 11th century. Anuradhapura is a former Sinhalese royal capital and the site of the temple of the holy Bo tree, which was grown from a sapling from under which the Buddha found enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago. The junta leader, believed to be in his 70s, suffered from a stomach bug on Thursday but appeared to have recovered by Friday when he toured the pilgrim town of Kandy.

Than Shwe was slated to return to Colombo later Saturday. He was due to receive blessings from Buddhist monks at a temple outside the capital on Sunday before

departing, the foreign

ministry said.

The junta leader stressed the “history of close Buddhist ties” between his country and Sri Lanka during a meeting with Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama at the start of his visit on Thursday.

His trip has outraged Myanmar monks living in Sri Lanka, who warned Colombo that its increasingly close relations with Myanmar’s military regime would further stoke international concern about the island’s human rights record.