By SNV Sudhir
Visakhapatnam, Aug 29, 2012: Buddhists in north Andhra are up in arms over the department of tourism’s latest proposal to construct a traditional health city, Arogyadham, at Thotla-konda, where an archaeologically sensitive 3nd century BC Buddhist complex is located.
In a recent meeting with the tourism department’s top officials, the Union minister of state for HRD, Ms D. Purandeswari, reviewed the progress of the project which was taken up at a cost of Rs.50 crore on a 50-acre site at Thotlakonda.
Just a few months after state government backtracked on its allotment of 3 acres at Thotlakonda to the Indian Navy for laying a road, the tourism department’s latest proposal of allotment of 50 acres for tourism, has kicked up another controversy.
The Thotlakonda Buddhi-st complex located on a hillock overlooking the sea, 128 metres above sea level and about 15 km from the city, was the hub for the spread of Buddhism to Sri Lanka and South East Asian countries during the third century BC. It was discovered during an aerial survey by the Indian Navy in the 70s. Later, state government declared the entire hill as a protected monument through a GO on May 2, 1978. During his research between 2001 and 2003, an archaeologist working at the University of Michigan, US, Edward Lars Fogelin, discovered 134 sites connected to Buddhism in Andhra Pradesh, including a monastery at Thotlakonda.
“Our sentiments are attached to Thotlakonda. The entire hillock was already declared as archaeologically sensitive and a protected site under various provisions by state government. Tourism will ruin the entire place and also its sanctity,” All India Lay-Buddhist Organisation (AILBO), governing body member K.V. Ramana Rao told this newspaper.
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