More security at Buddhist sites sought

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

BHUBANESWAR, India -- After the recent bomb blasts in Bodh Gaya, Odisha chapter of Buddhist Society of India on Wednesday demanded more security cover and proper boundary wall at all Buddhist sites in the state.

At a state-level meet here, they pointed out that after deploying only two or three policemen at Dhauli, the state government is content that it has provided proper security cover.

There have been several incidents of anti-socials troubling tourists at Buddhist shrines, but all our prayers have gone unheard, they said.

"Several Buddha idols have been transferred from Ratnagiri to Delhi, Patna and Kolkata by Archaeological Survey of India and we demand that they are brought back to our state", said general secretary, Odisha chapter of Buddhist Society of India, Laxman Mallick.

View the original article here

India, Thailand maps Buddhist historical sites

The map would not only contain Buddhist archaeological sites but also detailed information which tourists usually seek such as accessibility, visiting times, nearby accommodations, and relevant historical information.

In addition, the map would also enable users to discover lesser-known archaeological sites spread across South East Asia.

Some of the historical sites which will be included in the map are: Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, Sanchi, Ajanta in India, Lumbini in Nepal, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka, Ayutthaya in Thailand, Ankor Thom in Cambodia, Borobudur in Indonesia, Nara in Japan and Lung-men caves in China.

According to Baisakhi Sarkar, Deputy Director at the National Atlas & Thematic Mapping Organisation in Kolkata, the agency has formally started working on the map a month ago after receiving approval from the office of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

With 11 nations contributing data to the joint initiative, Sarkar estimated that project to be completed within two years.

?While eight countries including Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar have already joined the league, others would join in soon. The issue is being discussed at the government level with those countries,? Sarkar said.

To prepare the map, experts are taking the help of satellite images from Cartosat - an Indian earth observation satellite.

?Even though we are now including only the existing archaeological sites, in the future, new sites which are being excavated and discovered by archaeologists would be included in the map,? he said.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

NGO ventures to revive Buddhist sites in Pakistan

The proposal is to preserve, restore and emphasize on the significance of these ancient Buddhist sites in Pakistan, and provide a lasting self-sustainable tourism plan that would generate revenue and reveal its impact and importance.

The organization is on track to draw out plans and coordinate with several prominent NGOs, citizen groups and individuals who could help save the antique treasures. Noted Indian columnist Kuldip Nayar is also taking keen interest in the exercise to promote and save these Buddhist sites from further ruin.

Texila -an ancient site and centre of learning - also existed in Pakistan. In four provinces of Pakistan, several ancient Buddhist sites were discovered. President TBF, Sidhartha Gauri, said various prominent NGOs in Pakistan including Edhi Foundation and Mia Mir Welfare Trust have extended all possible support to save the Buddhist sites. Gauri said a peace activist Karamat Ali, Magsaysay award winner I a Rahman and former ambassador Malia Lodhi have also expressed their willingness to support the cause.

The TBF had recently highlighted ancient Buddhist sites in the Sindh province of Pakistan, many of which were unheard of to a larger population across the globe. Mastoor Fatima Bukhari, a professor with the Department of Archaeology, Shah Abdul Latif University, Pakistan assisted TBF in digging out essential information about the ancient sites in Sindh. Efforts to rope in some Buddhist organizations worldwide with a plan to highlight these sites in Pakistan to a much wider audience globally are also underway.

Sidhartha said, ?The people in India and Pakistan believe that the restoration of these ancient monuments will contribute to the peace process and create harmony among Asian nations.

The Buddhist sites in Pakistan were not protected so far?. The TBF has been working on highlighting the plight of ancient Buddhist sites in different countries in Asia, including some in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

View the original article here

Kashmir tourism department restore Buddhist sites to promote pilgrimage tourism

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

Baramulla (Jammu and Kashmir), India -- In a bid to attract more Buddhist pilgrims, the tourism department in Jammu and Kashmir has decided set to restore Buddhist sites in the state.

<< Ancient ruins at Parihaspora

The department has already sent a plan to the Archaeological Survey of India proposing to install basic facilities at these sites.

Places like Parihaspora, Harwan and Kanispura-Ushkura, which still have ruins of Buddhist monasteries, are planned to be included in department's pilgrimage tourism initiative.

Director of Jammu and Kashmir Tourism, Talat Parvez, said on Sunday that they would develop the whole circuit of tourism.

"There are many such ancient places and monuments where we want to promote tourism. We have done a documentation, which we will bring forward in the shape of a coffee table book in the next season. This coffee table book will become a source of promotion and such places will become prominent. We are also promoting circuit tourism," said Parvez.

Besides their historical importance, these sites hold a lot of significance and emotional attachment to Buddhists the world over.

Once these sites are developed, they will give a boost to local infrastructure and generate employment for locals.

Historians said that the Buddhist monastery in Parihaspora town, which is located at a distance of 26 kilometres from Srinagar, is one of the famed sites and if the provincial government pays attention and give it facelift then tourists will visit the place in large numbers.

"People do no come here in Kashmir to look only to the scenic beauty. They also would like to see the old heritage and how the civilization has developed here. So, if we see this is one of the biggest civilizations, which was here and this was the central place at one point of time. Now nobody recognises this place, it is all in shambles. So, the need of the hour is not just to preserve them, not just to put fence around them but to also bring people here to look, so that they will themselves see and develop the area around the vicinity," said a historian, Professor Mohammad Sultan.

Tourism is one of the biggest means of earning for the people of the Kashmir Valley. It was hit hard by the separatist agitations, which had adversely affected the turnout of tourists.

Meanwhile, Kashmir of northern Jammu and Kashmir state was once a top Asian tourism destination, popular among honeymooners, skiers, trekkers and anglers, and attracting about a million tourists a year until 1989, when a simmering anger against New Delhi's rule burst into a violent rebellion. And the numbers of visitors shrunk to only a few thousand a year.

However, with peace being restored in the province, the influx of tourists has increased.

View the original article here

China wants to stop profiteering at temple sites

Home Asia Pacific North Asia China

BEIJING, China -- China is telling tourist-favored Buddhist temples: Don't let money be your mantra.

<< "Chinese temples are getting too commercialized"

Authorities announced a ban this week on temples selling shares to investors after leaders of several popular temples planned to pursue stock market listings for them as commercial entities. Even the Shaolin Temple of kung fu movie fame was once rumored to be planning a stock market debut - and critics have slammed such plans as a step too far in China's already unrestrained commercial culture.

"Everywhere in China now is about developing the economy," complained Beijing resident Fu Runxing, a 40-year-old accountant who said he recently went to a temple where incense was priced at 300 yuan ($50) a stick.

"It's too excessive. It's looting," she said.

Centuries-old Buddhist pilgrimage sites Mount Wutai in Shanxi province, Mount Putuo in Zhejiang and Mount Jiuhua in Anhui all were moving toward listing on stock markets in recent months to finance expansions, according to state media.

The government's religious affairs office called on local authorities to ban profiteering related to religious activity and told them not to allow religious venues to be run as business ventures or listed as corporate assets.

Companies that manage temple sites may be able to bypass the prohibition on listing shares simply by excluding the temples themselves from their lists of assets. A Buddhist site at Mount Emei in Sichuan already has been on the Shenzhen stock exchange since 1997 but its listed assets include a hotel, cable car company and ticket booths - not the temples, which date back several hundred years. Shanghai lawyer Wang Yun said the new prohibition wouldn't likely affect Emei, but might make additional companies think twice before listing.

Turning religious sites into profit-making enterprises is certainly not limited to China, but it illustrates just how commercialized this communist country has become in the past couple of decades, with entrepreneurs seizing on every opportunity to make money. One businessman has started selling canned "fresh air" in polluted Beijing.

No one could have anticipated that the poor and egalitarian China of Mao Zedong's time would become a "Wild West" of commercialism, said Mary Bergstrom, founder of The Bergstrom Group, a marketing consultancy in Shanghai.

"There aren't the established checks and balances in China that exist in other countries ,so people are more willing and able to test the boundaries of what is acceptable, especially if the end result of these tests is potential profit," she said.

The Chinese government has strict controls on religion, with temples, churches and mosques run by state-controlled groups. Even so, religion is booming, along with tourism, giving some places a chance to cash in.

The ban on profiteering from religious activity is "just a reflection of the terrible reality of the over-commercialization in recent years of temples and other places," the Southern Metropolis Daily said in an editorial Wednesday. "People who have been to famous religious places should be familiar with expensive ticket prices and donations for all kinds of things."

Chinese entities from nature parks to religious sites are increasingly turning to commercial activities to pay expenses as government support dwindles in a society with little charitable giving. Temples face heavy costs to maintain centuries-old buildings and gardens.

But the State Administration for Religious Affairs says some local governments, businesses and individuals have built religious sites for profit, hired fake monks and tricked visitors into handing over money.

A notice on its website Monday, issued jointly with the police ministry and other authorities, warned of serious punishment for officials found to be involved in religious profiteering.
The new rules leave open when commercialism crosses the line to profiteering. No matter where the line might be, entrepreneurial officials and religious groups may not heed it.

An employee of the Wutai Scenic District Administration's propaganda office confirmed Wednesday that the local government was planning to pursue a stock market listing but said he couldn't give details. The man, who would give only his surname, Bai, said he didn't know whether the latest notice would affect that plan.

The notion that some temples were becoming more about dollars than dharma first came to the fore in 2009 with reports that the legendary Shaolin monastery and martial arts center might sell shares to investors on a mainland or Hong Kong stock market.

The 1,500-year-old temple has become a lucrative business enterprise and holds registered trademarks, but its managers have denied rumors of floating shares and reiterated that denial Wednesday.

----------
Associated Press researcher Flora Ji contributed to this report.

View the original article here

The Price of Faith: Chinese Buddhist Sites Plan IPOs

Home Asia Pacific North Asia China

China’s four most sacred Buddhist mountains are hatching plans to list on the Shanghai stock exchange.

Beijing, China -- In China today, there’s little that money can’t buy — even when it comes to faith. Many of the country’s most popular Buddhist sites are chock-full of cure-all tonics and overpriced incense.

<< TIM STELZER / GETTY IMAGES
Buddhists pray at Putuo Shan, Zhejiang Province, China.

For the most part, people seem happy, or at least willing, to oblige. That changed this summer, though, when it emerged that China’s four most sacred Buddhist mountains were hatching plans to list on the Shanghai stock exchange.

In July, Mount Putuo Tourism Development Co. announced it would attempt to raise 7.5 billion yuan in a 2014 initial public offering. The company operates the tourist facilities at Putuo Shan, located on an island 20 miles (32 km) off Shanghai. Chinese state media quoted representatives of Wutai Shan in Shanxi province and Jiuhua Shan in Anhui province as saying they too had plans to raise funds on the capital markets. The fourth of China’s sacred mountains, Emei Shan in Sichuan province, completed a public listing in Shenzhen in 1997, under the incredibly auspicious ticker symbol “888.”

The IPO plans have not played well. The four mountains are revered by Chinese Buddhists as the earthly homes of four bodhisattvas — holy people who have attained enlightenment but have returned to earth to help others attain nirvana. Now, though, they have become symbols of commercial excess, with critics charging that they have crossed an invisible spiritual line. “Does Buddha Love Money Too?” asked a provincial newspaper in Hunan. “Buddhist Mountain IPOs Bring Shame,” screamed a headline in the National Business Daily. “These temples are sacred places, they shouldn’t be listed, it goes against the idea of religion,” Jiang Zhaoyong, a well-known social commentator and former editor of a Hong Kong newspaper, says. “This is a spiritual thing — how can you measure that with money?”

The officials who run the sites disagree. They emphasize that hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists visit the sites every year and argue that the listings are necessary to maintain the mountains and develop facilities for visitors. Indeed, in an interview with the Shanghai-based Dongfang Daily, the head of the Putuo Shan tourism office said that the funds raised through the IPO would be used to improve accommodation, transportation and restaurants on Putuo island and nearby areas.

The strategy is not entirely new. Perhaps the most infamous ecclesiastical entrepreneur in China is the abbot of Shaolin Temple, spiritual home of Zen Buddhism and site of the world-famous martial-arts school. Since Shi Yongxin, the youngest abbot in the history of the temple, took charge in 1999 he has launched several ambitious moneymaking ventures, including a Hollywood-style movie based, very loosely, on the history of the temple, a franchise operation to license the Shaolin name to other temples, and an online store selling, among other things, a book called The Secret of Shaolin Martial Arts. The book retails for $1,500.

Critics see such revenue-generating ventures as gateways to religious commercialism, even corruption. On a recent visit to Putuo Shan, Li Chengpeng, a top social commentator in China, was accosted by groups of fortune-telling monks looking for money. “I got up at 4 a.m. to visit the Puji Temple on the mountain and ran into a group of shaven-headed monks dressed in traditional cassocks who jumped on me, telling me ‘You should do some good deeds to ensure a prosperous future,’” Li recalls. He says his offer of 200 yuan was rebuffed. “They demanded 400 [yuan] instead. Later I realized they are all cheats. Real monks are all in their morning classes at that hour. How could they be walking around and asking for alms?”

And it’s not just a couple of crooks, Li contends. He sees religious IPOs as just another example of the national obsession with gaining wealth. “How can you tell when a generation is in trouble?” he asks. “It’s when its religion, its priests, its temples and its churches are all for hiding their faith in order to achieve ulterior motives.” Liu Wei, deputy director of the No. 1 Division at the State Administration for Religious Affairs, said at a press conference earlier this summer that temples should operate as nonprofit organizations, serving the religious needs of the public. “Looking at other countries in the world, there are no other examples of religious sites listing publicly,” he said. “There have to be boundaries in the development of a market economy.”

Nonetheless, business is booming. Emei Shan’s share price has risen 17% since the start of the year, and analysts are feeling optimistic. “Since a rising of ticket price is very likely, and the Chengdu–Mt. Emei Express Railway is going to be put into operation in 2013, we are confident about [Emei Shan’s] growth in 2013–2014,” Haitong Securities’ analyst Lin Zhouyong wrote in a recent report. It seems that despite the moral outrage, investors have faith.

Source: http://world.time.com/2012/09/27/the-price-of-faith-chinese-buddhist-sites-plan-ipos/#ixzz27xpsBfQd

View the original article here

India plans to promote Buddhist sites as new tourist hotspots

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

VARANASI, India -- In an effort to attract at least half of the total Buddhist population spread in 35 countries by promoting Buddhist pilgrimage sites, is the new mantra of the ministry of tourism, Government of India and the states enshrining the Buddhist pilgrimage sites.

The call was given during the inauguration of the three-day International Buddhist Conclave (IBC)-2012 at a hotel compound in Nadesar area on Saturday. Due to the last-minute cancellation of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's visit, Union minister of state for tourism Subodh Kant Sahai, along with the ministers of tourism of UP, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha inaugurated the conclave. Apart from 133 delegates from 30 countries, who are mainly tour operators, opinion leaders and travel writers, delegates from 16 states are also taking part in the conclave.

In his address, UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) executive director Marcio Favilla said that "while the number of international tourists last year was one billion, next year this figure can touch the mark of 1.8 billion".

"During the G-20 summit held in June, the tourism sector was approved as an important economic activity. It's for the first time that the tourism has been included in G-20 declaration. Focus should be on sustainable tourism to generate employment. Similarly, religious tourism would play a key role in increasing the number of international tourists."

The Union minister of state for tourism said: "The ministry is aiming at promoting religious tourism on the line of the Muslim religious shrines in Saudi Arabia. Even if half of the Buddhist population (out of a total of 50 lakh) visits the Buddhist pilgrim centres in the country annually, the goal of the ministry would be achieved. This would also help in generating employment for three crore people."

The minister also highlighted the measures initiated by the Central government regarding visa issues.

The tourism ministers of participating states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, left no opportunity to promote the Buddhist sites of their states. However, the main competition between UP and Bihar to woo the delegates for attracting more and more tourists was quite evident.

Bihars minister for tourism Sunil Kumar Pintu highlighted how improvement in basic infrastructure, especially roads, had help in attracting a large number of tourists to the Buddhist sites in Bihar. However, UP minister of state for tourism M C Chauhan had no concrete plans to disclose except expecting that the chief minister would do some miracle to change the fate of tourism industry in UP.

View the original article here

Odisha Urges Centre to include state's Buddhist heritage sites in NCERT text books

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

Orissa, India -- Odisha Government urges Union Culture Ministry to ask NCERT to make corrections to its text on Buddhist sites by including ones in Odisha. Odisha Tourism Minister Maheswar Mohanty demanded this during his meeting with Union Culture Minister Kumari Selja in New Delhi.

Minister Mohanty said that, everyone knows about Nalanda from their school textbooks, but very few know about Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri and Udayagiri. While textbooks prepared by the NCERT mentions Nalanda as one of the major Buddhist sites in India, it has ignored Odisha as an important seat of Buddhist Learning. He demanded centre to include Buddhist heritage sites of the state in NCERT text books.Minister Mohanty urged the Minister Kumari Selja to handed over the sacred relic of Buddha  to the state government as state government will display it for tourists and public at the state museum in Bhubaneswar. After the completion of new museum in Lalitgiri the state government will transfer the sacred Relic of the tooth of Buddha to Lalitgiri. It should be noted that ASI preserved the sacred relic of Buddha in it's strong room in Bhubaneswar after it was unearthed at Lalitgiri in 1986.

View the original article here

Sounds of silence at Buddhist sites in Odisha, Ratnagiri-Udayagiri-Lalitgiri

Home Travel

Ratnagiri, India -- Hat patience is indeed a virtue is something a history buff discovers while exploring Odisha. In Puri, the pandas dominate, cajoling a visitor to perform ceremonies which he is not even remotely interested in. In Konark, a visitor needs to get through a swarm of tourist guides, each ready with his own interpretation of the place's history. In Raghurajpur, people are more polite. They only follow you everywhere, each politely asking you to come to his home and view his paintings.

If all these chattering Homo sapiens who come as a package deal with the regular tourist beat tend to put you off, take a break. As I did. And I headed for a hidden delight of Odisha - its Buddhist heritage at Ratnagiri-Udayagiri-Lalitgiri, known as the 'Diamond Triangle'. Ratnagiri is 70 km north-east of Cuttack in Jajpur, just like Udayagiri, and Lalitgiri is a part of Cuttack.

I hit the road and went north, leaving first Puri, then Bhubaneswar and even Cuttack behind. Swinging off the highway after Cuttack, I took the road to Paradip on the coast. Another diversion left of this highway transformed the experience. The smooth, wide road became a shade uneven and a bit narrow. But I was so busy admiring the vivid greens and blues of the countryside that I didn't feel the change in the surface. The curving road passed tree-covered hills, traversed lush fields and forded blue water streams.

And then, just as I began to get over the journey and begin thinking of the destination, it arrived. Ratnagiri.

It is an ancient Buddhist site where excavations happened between 1958 and 1961 and revealed the presence of a flourishing monastic settlement. However, except for the Odisha Tourism and Archeological Survey of India signposts, a visitor would miss the place entirely. From a distance, it is just another hill, part of the range called Assia that dominates the area.

Ascending the hill, I came across hundreds of small votive stupas, rock cut sculptures and other remains spread throughout the area. The focal point of the hill was a large monastery whose ceremonial gateway was the highlight of Ratnagiri. The door - an opening formed out of a chlorite frame in the wall - was quite small but the rich rock-cuts that surround it make for spectacular viewing.

On both sides of the door and on the nearby walls were iconic representations of various celestial beings. The expressions on their faces are curiously life-like, their closed eyes a reflection of the monks who would have lived here once. According to a description on the ASI website, this ceremonial gateway is unique and forms the high point of Buddhist decorative art in India. Entering the monastery, I almost expected to find the monks seated at prayer.

An Abundance Of Buddhist Treasures

In their place the monastery, however, was a large number of rock cuts that the ASI has gathered from the excavations around the site and stored here.

The first thing I saw on entering the monastery was a huge head of the Buddha on the left. Going by its size, it would have been interesting to know what the full size of the idol would have been. In the cells within the monastery too, there are some life-size seated Buddha idols. The largest such idol is in the central sanctum where Buddha is flanked by idols of Padmapani and Vajrapani, Buddhist figures. The large courtyard formed by the monastery walls also has some small shrines.

This central monastery at Ratnagiri is the site of the mahavihara or major monastery whose presence here is indicated by historians. That makes it a very, very special place. According to some Tibetian texts, the Ratnagiri mahavihara was a centre of the Tantric form of Buddhism. Excavated remains from this site are believed to bear a close resemblance to similar remains found in Java and Sri Lanka.

While most of the architecture at Ratnagiri dates between the 8th and the 10th centuries, it is believed to have been a flourishing center of Buddhism as far back as 639 AD when Hieun T'sang , the Chinese pilgrim passed through the region. Apart from the main monastery, there are remains of some large stupas and at least one more monastery. Rock cut icons are everywhere. The ASI-run museum at Ratnagiri also offers a visitor a glimpse of the region's rich past.

Ratnagiri is not an isolated site. It is one of three known excavated centres of Buddhism in the region - all tlocated on hill slopes in close proximity to each other. According to some historians , there are four more sites around but those await further excavation. While driving back to the main road that goes to Paradip, another diversion brought me to the second of the Buddhist sites: Udayagiri.

Incredible relics

While the first excavation at Udayagiri happened in 1958 (the same time as Ratnagiri) excavations there continued at regular intervals, the latest one lasting from 1997 till 2000. The result is an incredible treasure trove of Buddhist artefacts spread over a much larger area than the earlier site that I had visited.

A longish walk on a track bordered on either side by thick bushes brought me to the first excavated site. Remains of votive stupas were everywhere, some small, others large. Here and there were scattered monasteries too.

The Udayagiri-1 site, as the first excavated place is called, spreads from one hill through a depression below onto the next hill. Tramping through the undergrowth , I was awed as much by the extent of the remains as by the silence of the place. Here, far from the noisy faith of Puri and from the chaos of Konark, is Odisha's true soul, a silent link to its Buddhist past.

Udayagiri-2 , the second excavated site, has a few scattered stupa remains. One in particular is notable for Buddha representations in niches on its outer walls. On a gateway nearby is the figure of a being swinging on a rope. The eyes are closed and the person is in bliss. The rock-cuts here took me away from the real world into the bygone era of the Buddhist monks who lived and worshipped here. Leaving the place is a wrench but at least the magic of the place lingers till much later.

But before coming away, I did visit the third site, at Lalitgiri on the other side of the road to Paradip. The hill on which Lalitgiri sits is higher than the other hills, at least to a casual climber. The vegetation is thicker and here and there, I could hear creatures slithering in the undergrowth!

For quite a while during the ascent up the hill there is nothing to indicate that heritage lies hidden close by. But up on the hill, I stopped and stared. Everyone does. A massive banyan dominates the vista.

It has grown to such an extent that multiple branches have taken root themselves while the old patriarch continues to hang to onto them, refusing to let go, much like a strict grandfather holding back recalcitrant children.

Below the banyan the votive stupas begin to make an appearance again. On the other side of the gigantic tree and its descendants, is the base of a massive stupa. This site was the subject of an excavation that began in 1985 and continued with full intensity till 1992, and has been examined off and on ever since.

The findings at Lalitgiri include an incredible relic casket containing bones, believed by some historians to be of Gautam Buddha himself. The relic casket comprised four containers one inside the other, each layer made of khondalite, steatite, silver and gold respectively. The casket, of course, has been shifted to a safer location than the lonely excavation site.

The highest point of the Lalitgiri hill, accessed by a flight of steep steps, has a brick stupa on it. Centuries ago, Lalitgiri was the focal point of a Buddhist university called Puspagiri, the other two sites making up the rest. Huien T'sang described the stupa at Lalitgiri's highest point as emitting a brilliant light due to its sacredness.

While I did not see such a light, the sounds I captured then, standing high above a carpet of green fields, stayed with me long after. But then, the sound of silence is hard to forget...

View the original article here

German scholars to visit major Buddhist sites

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

HYDERABAD, India -- A group of scholars from Wurzburg varsity, Germany are keen to do some project work on development of Buddhist sites and monuments in the state.

The group headed by Ingo Strauch, chair of Indology, and comprising Casen Dreyer, Britta Schneider and Anke Sanger, visited the office of the director of archaeology and museums and helddiscussions with director P Chenna Reddy on the matter.

Chenna Reddy said the scholars, who had been teaching Buddhism at the German university for several years, were interested in visiting the Buddhist sites at Thotlakonda, Bavikonda, Pavuralakonda, Salihundam, Sankaram in north Andhra, and Phanigiri in Nelakondapalli in Telangana.

They will also visit Chandavaram in Prakasam district and Nagarjunakonda in Guntur district to study the distribution of Buddhist settlements across the state and their development from Theravada School of Philosophy to Vajrayana School of Philosophy up to the medieval times as noticed at Salihundam in north Andhra and Dhanyakataka (Amaravati) in Guntur district.

Chenna Reddy explained the steps taken by the state government to develop Buddhist sites and monuments as major tourist destinations.

View the original article here

Orissa to spend spend 14 crores to develop Buddhist sites to attract tourists

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

Jajpur, India -- To attract more tourists to Langudi, Kaima, Neulipur, Tarapur and other hills in Jajpur district, the state government will spend 14 crores within four years, said Ashok Tripathy the secretary of tourism and culture department of Orissa on Saturday.  Tripathy along with senior officials visited these Buddhist sites on Saturday.

For an archeological hotspot, Langudi wears the tag of obscurity well. Located in Dharmasala tahasil of Jajpur district , it is a sleepy hamlet with a sparse population. But things could change, thanks to the discovery of a Buddhist Stupa along with many images of different postures of Lord Buddha. Langudi hit the headlines eight years ago, when several senior historian and archeologists considered it as the ‘Puspagiri’ as described the famous Chinese traveler Huein Tsang . However, very few tourists have since ventured into this remote hamlet for a view of the aretefacts. But the government will spend money to develop the Buddhist site for which more tourists will come soon, said Tripathy.

Targeting Buddhist Tourism, in Jajpur the state government is going to launch Buddhist Circuit involving primary pilgrimage places associated with the life and teachings of Lord Buddha.Lalitagiri, Ratnagiri, Udayagiri, Langudi, Kaima and Neulipur are the primary pilgrimage places along with numerous other sites where Buddha and the saints travelled will be part of the itinerary, Tripathy said .

Global tourism trend has shifted to Asian Tourist market with 40 per cent of total tourists in the international tourism market arriving from Asian Countries. “Trend of tourism is changing with the interval of time and there is a need of new products to be identified,” said Tripathy.
The state government will build a 150 feet high Buddha statute in Neulapur hill and a 85 Buddha statute in Deuli hill to attract more tourists. A 50 feet high Shiva statute will be built in Gokarneswat temple. A 500 meter long ropeway will be connected from Deuli hill to Kaima hill, said Tripathy.

Kalpataru Das the MLA of Dharmasala suggested before the officials to build the statues and we have agreed to abide the decision of the MLA, said Tripathy.

View the original article here