China will continue to support efforts of the Dhaka government to build new temples for the Bangladesh icon, including the ongoing excavation of over 1,000-year-old Buddhist temple in the birthplace of Atish Dipankar, Ma said.

Rahman, who presided over the memorial function organized by Bangladesh Cultural Academy and Bangladesh Buddhist Research Association, said China, which has the legendary philosopher and teacher Confucius who lived between 551 and 479 B.C., is a country of wisdom and knowledge.

China's peaceful rise has generated enormous prosperity for the countries of Asia even today, Rahman said.

Rahman also expressed the hope that President Xi Jinping's "One Belt, One Road" initiative of reviving the ancient Silk Road through a network of roads and maritime linkages will boost peaceful cooperation between China and the various regional blocs, adding that this was precisely the dream of Atish: creating a continent of peace in the whole Asia.

Named Chandragarbha by his parents, Atish was born in 980 or 982 AD to a royal family in Vajrayogini village on the outskirts of Dhaka.

Because of his outstanding knowledge and wisdom, he was named Atish Dipankar Srigyan, which means "glorious wisdom source of light." He has been venerated for nearly 1,000 years as an outstanding personality in Tibet Autonomous Region and Asian countries north of the Himalayas.

At the invitation of the king of the Western Tibetan kingdom of Guge, 56-year old Atish journeyed to Tibet to introduce the Buddha 's teachings in 1038. Dipankar stayed in Tibet for 17 years until he passed away in 1054.

He wrote over 200 Buddhist books, popularize medical science, built reservoirs and did some translations.

But the great philosopher of 10th-11th Century was forgotten for centuries in a peculiar twist of history in the land of his birth, Bangladesh, as well as in Indian sub-continent until the end of 19th Century.