___________

Following is a list of museums and ASI ticketed monuments in and around Bhubaneswar:

1. Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar. (branch museums at: Puri, Dhenkanal, Salipur, Khiching, Baripada, Balasore, Nuapara, Bhawanipatna, Balangir, Jeypore, Baragarh and Koraput)
2. Museum of Tribal Arts and Artifacts, Bhubaneswar.
3. Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH), Bhubaneswar.
4. Regional Science Center, Bhubaneswar
5. Handloom and Handicrafts museum, Bhubaneswar (being set up)
6. ASI Museum in Konark.
7. ASI Museum in Ratnagiri.
8. ASI Museum in Lalitgiri (being constructed)
9. ASI Ticketed Monuments (Konark, Udaygiri and Khandagiri caves, Rajarani temple, Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri)
10. Srikhetra Culture Museum, Puri (being constructed)
11. Dhenkanal Science Center. (Kapilas Science Park.)

Following is a list of live museums in and around Bhubaneswar:

1. Nandan Kanan, Barang
2. State Botanical Garden, Barang
3. Regional Plant Resource Center (Ekamra Kanan), Bhubaneswar (with a cactus garden, arboretum, orchidarium, bamboosetum, wild fruit garden and palmetum)
4. Medicinal plant garden, Patrapada, Bhubaneswar
5. Jayadev Vatika, Kenduvila (30 kms from Bhubaneswar)
6. Jayadev batika at Khandagiri.
7. Ekamra Vana (Medicinal plant garden), around Bindu sagar lake, Bhubaenswar
8. Various parks in Bhubaneswar.
9. Aquarium at Nandan Kanan.
10. Aquarium at CIFA, Bhubaneswar
11. Aquarium, Puri (planned)

Others:

1. Sudarshan Sand art institute, Puri.
2. Raghurajpur artisan village.

(Appeal to readers: I would appreciate any additional pointers to literature where the knowledge center aspects of the Odisha buddhist monuments have been discussed and/or they have been compared with the well-known buddhist sites in India such as Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Sanchi, etc.)

We all have read about Nalanda and Taxila as ancient learning centers and they are often referred to the as precursor of the present day universities. In Odisha the yet to be identified Puspagiri mahavihara as well as the Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Udaygiri  have been compared with Nalanda in the art history and Buddhist literature. Following are some slides (in facebook) which compiles that information. In these slides we quote extensively from Mrs. Debala Mitra’s two books. Mrs. Mitra was the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (1975-1983) [Page 448 of this book] and has written extensively on various Monuments of India.

The above slides do not have any pictures. As is mentioned in some of the slides, the Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Udaygiri Mahaviharas are also comparable to Bodhgaya in certain respects and one slide mentioned how none of the monasteries in Nalanda can compare with the embellishment in one of the monastery found in Ratnagiri. The following pictures, again from facebook, gives one the idea of what has been found in Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Udaygiri and the beauty and significance of them.

In 2010 the Indian Parliament passed the Nalanda International University Bill. This university is in the making now and this wikipedia page has information on it. We hope that some day more people in Odisha and India will know about Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Udaygiri and a similar university (perhaps called Puspagiri University, the yet to be identified Mahavihara about which Hiuen Tsang wrote glowingly) will be established in Odisha. Towards that effort some background information has been compiled in a facebook page and a facebook account. Following is a glimpse of the information that has been collected.

Following is an excerpt from a report  Akshay Rout in Pioneer.

To attract more tourists to Langudi, Kaima, Neulipur, Tarapur and other hills in Jajpur district, the State Government would spend Rs 14 crore in four years, said Secretary of Tourism and Culture Department Ashok Tripathy while he, along with other senior officials, visited these Buddhist sites on Saturday.

For an archeological hotspot, Langudi wears the tag of obscurity well. Located in Dharmasala tehsil, 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 historians and archaeologists considered it as the Puspagiri, as described the famous Chinese traveller Huein Tsang. However, few tourists have since ventured into this remote hamlet for a view of the artifacts. But the government would spend money to develop the Buddhist site, said Tripathy.

Targeting Buddhist tourism in Jajpur, the Government is going to launch a 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, would be parts of the tourist itinerary, Tripathy said.

… The Government would build a 150-feet-high Buddha statute at Neulapur hill and a 85-feet Buddha statute at Deuli hill. A 50-feet-high Shiva statute would be built in the Gokarneswat temple. A 500-meter-long ropeway would be connected from Deuli hill to Kaima hill, he added.

Following are links from http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/.

Site Index, Part X: East India, before 1000

Maurya (323-185 BC)
Dhauli – Ashoka’s Rock Edict (3)

Chedi (2d century BC – 1st century AD)
Udayagiri (Khandagiri) – Jain Cave Temples (8)

Orissan dynasties, 8th – 12th century
Ratnagiri – Buddhist Monastery (12)
Udayagiri – Buddhist Monastery (5)
Bhubaneshwar – Hindu Temples (31)

Site Index, Part XI: East India, 900-1400

Somavamshi (9th – early 11th century)
Hirapur – Chaunsath Yogini Temple (9)

Eastern Ganga (10th – 14th century)
Konarak – Surya Temple (12)

Following is a picture from http://www.tathya.in/2008/story.asp?sno=2360.

Following is an excerpt from a report in the Telegraph.

Come January, a narrow ribbon of fraying tar would lead you to the hills of Chandragiri where the largest Tibetan monastery in north India is coming up.

The monastery, being built since December 2003, is all set to push the “little Tibet” —where 3,000-odd immigrants have made their home for the past five decades — on the international tourism map.

After living together for years and growing vegetables, maize, rice and pulses, the Tibetan refugees roped in about 200 artisans from Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet to build the beautiful complex with plated statues, elaborate frescoes and expensive silk hangings in the hill in Gajapati district, about 300km from Bhubaneswar.

The refugees — for whom arrangements were made by the government during the Chinese aggression in 1959 — have renamed Chandragiri as “Phuntsokling” meaning “land of happiness and plenty”.

“This place already attracts a good number of foreign tourists, especially Buddhist pilgrims. With the monastery being completed, we expect over 10 times the present inflow,” said said Khenpo Pema, in-charge of the monastery. “We have been trying to convince the government to facilitate in promoting this place in a bigger way,” he added.

The Rs 7-crore structure is spread over15 acres and will not just serve religious purposes but also double as an educational institution on Buddhist philosophy. “Our ancestors had been planning a monastery for long but arranging funds were difficult then,” said Pema. Facilities for accommodation have been arranged with a 10-suite guesthouse at the monastery where a shopping complex would also be opened.

“Tibetan refugees are highly religious. We will soon be recognised as an ace religious institution too,” said Pema, adding that classes for around 200 wannabe lamas from Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh had already started.

The complex is spread across mediation hall, administrative quarters, assembly hall of lamas, chapels, shrines and a vast library of Buddhist scriptures. The architecture of the monastery represents the Tibetan style designed with frescoes out of Buddhist scriptures. The huge golden statue of Buddha presides in the monastery with statues of Lord Padmasambhaba and Lord Avalokiteswara on either side. “We have ensured that it has all the flavours of Tibetan architecture,” said Jaampa, the chief architecture.