Buddhist meet clinches world heritage status cry for Udayagiri

Delivering the valedictory address, governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare said the meet will go a long way to boost the rich Buddhist heritage of Odisha and urged tour operators to promote Udayagiri internationally. MLA Amar Prasad Satapathy highlighted the glorious contribution of Buddhist sites and pressed for including Udayagiri in the list of world heritage sites.

Impressed with the diamond triangle of Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri sites in Odisha, professor Anura Manatunga from Sri Lanka called upon participants to motivate tour operators from Sri Lanka to promote this circuit along with traditional Buddhist sites of UP and Bihar.

Principal secretary tourism Ashok Kumar Tripathy highlighted the state government's commitment for promotion of Buddhist tourism aggressively in the domestic and international sector. He hoped there will be a surge of tourist traffic from Southeast Asian countries once the Bhubaneswar airport is opened for the international sector.

Twenty international delegates from seven countries and 65 national delegates participated in the conference. A total of 1,547 domestic and 66 foreign tourists attended the meet as well.

Broad subjects of discussion at the event included Buddhist philosophy and schools of thought, Buddhist remains of Odisha, Buddhism for international peace and relevance of Buddhism in the 21st century, Buddhist art, iconography and architecture, apart from Buddhist vestiges and tourism.

"The topics for discussion were important and suitable for the time. For example, higher education and promotion of Buddhist practices are crucial for the religion. The event was attended by more than 110 overseas guests, 25 Indian tour operators, many international Buddhist scholars and others," said Amiya Patnaik, vice-chancellor of Utkal University of Culture, which collaborated for organizing the event.

"The event was a big success. Odisha has a rich Buddhist heritage, with several important sites associated with the life of Lord Buddha, which are of great interest for followers of Buddhism the world over. The conference was held with a view to showcasing and projecting the Buddhist heritage of the state. The Buddhist conference highlighted the relevance of Buddhism in today's age, more than 2,000 years after king Ashoka took it upon himself to spread the message of Lord Buddha," said Jiban Patnaik a senior official of Archeological Survey of India, Bhubaneswar.

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Tohoku’s ‘Pure Land’ Blessed by World Heritage Status

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Iwate Prefecture, Japan -- It’s been a harrowing  few months for Japan’s disaster-hit northeast, but this week the residents of Iwate Prefecture were blessed with a rare piece of good news.

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School students gather before the Main Hall at the Chuson-ji Temple in Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture in May.

The Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization, or Unesco, on Sunday awarded World Heritage status to the Hiraizumi area in southern Iwate, the site of a 900-year old Buddhist temple called Chuson-ji that was built in an attempt to create a “Pure Land” of enlightenment on earth.

Construction of the temple, which sits in a peaceful cedar forest well away from the tsunami zone (though it still suffered some damage from the March 11 earthquake), was started in the early 12th century by warlord Fujiwara no Kiyohira after he renounced a life of battle in favor of the peaceful study of Buddhist scripture. And Chuson-ji’s chief priest said the temple’s founding mission resonates strongly with modern concerns about peace and the environment, something he thinks helped Hiraizumi to gain World Heritage status.

“The man who built the site participated in many conflicts that occurred at the time and saw his parents, wife and children killed by his enemies,” said Chief Priest Shunwa Yamada at a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday. “After he gave up fighting and began studying Buddhism, he founded a temple to teach that all creatures should be allowed to live equally in nature, and that all living things have an obligation to nurture the lives of others.”

Hiraizumi also includes sub-temples, gardens and architectural sites; the remains of two centuries of political and cultural importance for the region under the rule of the Fujiwaras. At its peak in the 12th century, the population of the town was thought to be in the tens of thousands–today there are closer to 8,500 living there.

The governor of Iwate Prefecture, Takuya Tasso, said at the same press conference that he hopes World Heritage status for Hiraizumi will allow the prefecture to repay some of the international support it has received in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, which left nearly 7,000 residents dead or missing. “We hope to receive many visitors from overseas and hold international conferences on peace and the environment,” he said.

Hiraizumi’s listing with Unesco–which helps governments and local residents safeguard their most valuable cultural and natural assets and promotes international cooperation on conservation—brings the total number of World Heritage sites in Japan to 16.

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