Burmese Senior General Than Shwe is to pay an official visit to India late this month, a sojourn that is to include a visit to the town of Budh Gaya in Bihar, where Siddharta Gautama is said to have achieved enlightenment following 49 days of meditation.

In his visit, the junta leader will meet with Indian President Pratil Patel and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with other ministers.

The Indian embassy in Rangoon confirmed the expected visit of Burma’s Head-of-State, but declined to offer further details when contacted by Mizzima.

Indian papers are reporting that the Burmese delegation’s trip will cover a span of five days, from the 25th to 29th of this month.

The Senior General’s 70-member entourage, including family members, will first visit the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment before proceeding on to the Indian capital city of New Delhi.

“We learned from the Burmese embassy in India that the Senior General will come here for a pilgrimage trip,” a monk told Mizzima from a monastery in the Indian holy city of Varanasi, only a few kilometers from the site where Buddha delivered his first sermon.

Though India originally extended their support to Burma’s pro-democracy struggle led by Aung San Suu Kyi following the traumatic events of 1988, New Delhi has since reversed its course, strengthening official relations and investing vast sums inside Burma in accord with its Look East Policy developed over the course of the 1990s.

Than Shwe last visited India in October 2004.