Vizag unprepared for Kalachakra tourists

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, December 30: The district tourism department is trying its level best to attract international Buddhist monks to the city of destiny, who would arriving in the State for the ensuing prestigious sacred Kalachakra inunciation to be solemnised by the international Buddhists spiritual leader Dalailama from January 2 to 16 at Amaravathi, Guntur district.It is estimated that more than 1.5 lakh Buddhists will witness the Kalachkra who would come from various parts of the world. Visakhapatnam has prominent Buddhist sites like Bavikonda, Thotlakonda, Pavuralakonda, Bojjanakonda, Gopalapatnam.But those international tourists interested in visiting the Buddhists places in Vizag would be shocked to see these places, as adequate facilities would not be provided for them at these places.There were not even display boards erected near the chaityas, viharas depicting the historical importance of the Buddhists sites. The district tourism department had printed literature to distribute them during the Kalachakra at Amaravathi and also created an exclusive website  HYPERLINK "http://www.visakhabudhistsmoments.com" www.visakhabudhistsmoments.com to enable the international tourists for better accessibility to the places. A separate stall was also being at Amaravathi to attract them.But not even a single effort was being made to give a facelift these premises. Speaking to this correspondent the Project Manager of the Kalachakra Organising committee, Thupten Tsewang said Vizag district collector Praveen Prakash met the organizers few days ago and planned for a tourism promotion of the Buddhist places in and around Visakhapatnam.We have taken the brochures of the Vizag sites and supplied them to all our concerned offices. And whoever tourist visit these offices may pick those brochures and may visit Vizag added Thupten. The district torism officer, G Subbarao said that they cannot step into the above buddhsits sites as it was archelogy departments duty to take care of these places including erecting those display boards, maintenance etc. The Assistant Director of department of Archeology, Mr PrasadaRao is not available to comment.The Buddhist places like Thotlakonda and Bavikonda are considered to be the very promiennet budhist places in the country.Thotlakonda happens to be the only site that has been explored and excavated completely and for which a report too has been made available. For the first time, the report was brought out on the layout and pattern of growth of a Buddhist monastic establishment in the coastal Andhra region, said a veteran budhist of the city, BS Chalam.Archeologists felt the absence of clear data from Kalinga Empire for tracing Buddhist cultural links with Sri Lanka and various parts of South East Asia has been filled up to some extent by the excavations at Thotlakonda. They even felt that this place provided a good starting point to understand the process of trans - oceanic diffusion of Indian culture and particularly Buddhism Chalam.