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Buddhist tourism at snail’s pace

Shyamhari Chakra

BHUBANESWAR: Has the tourism department’s much-hyped Buddhist tourism promotion programme for the state has found a back seat? Seems so going by the development’s at a snail’s pace over the past two years.

Nearly three years ago, a delegation of Buddhist monks from some South East Asian countries toured Orissa as an initiative of the private tour operators. Impressed with the Buddhist heritage of the State, the delegation representatives called on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to apprise him about the State’s huge feasibility to attract nearly seven million Buddhists staying in their respective countries.

Months later, the then tourism director Mr.S.K.Sarangi convened a meeting of key functionaries of the Archaeological Survey of India, State Archaeology, the Dhauli Shanti Stupa, Orissa Buddhist Front, Buddha Sangha, Cuttack, Nirvana Pilgrim Society and Nirvana Tours of Kolkata on July 1, 2005 to host the first Buddha Mahotsav from December 9 to 11 during the year.

The meeting had resolved to hold the first segment of the event at the Dhauli hills and the last in the diamond triangle of Ratnagiri-Lalitgiri-Udaygiri. A seminar on Buddhism, an exhibition of photography by the ASI, a painting competition and cultural events related to Buddha by troupes from India and the South East Asian countries were also planned. It was proposed to approach Air India and Thai Airlines to sponsor the travel of the foreign troupes while the Nirvana tours, the collaborator of the event, was asked to arrange at least 500 tourists from those countries. However, none knew why the festival was not mounted as planned while all other festivals were held by the department as usual. Ironically, new festivals like Ekamra Utsav, Mukteswar festival were held with an emphasis on Odissi dance.

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