The under-construction meditation hall where the Buddha statue would be kept and (below) a 3D image of what it would look like. Picture by Ashok Sinha

The government is looking ahead to gift the city a state-of-the-art museum revolving around Buddha’s life this Independence Day.

The museum, on the premises of Buddha Smriti Park, would not only greet visitors to 26 artefacts related to Buddha’s life but also to different audio-visual mediums for one-of-a-kind experience.

On entering the museum, visitors would be shown an eight-minute animated movie on Buddha’s life and will be taken on a virtual tour of the museum. As they would advance into the museum, orientation theatre, touch screens, digital narration for practising different mudras of Buddha, artificial cave for meditation and Buddhist chants would be few of the attractions waiting for them.

Work to complete the interiors and installation of the audio-visual equipment is on, said art, culture and youths affairs officials. The department is responsible for the museum block.

A senior officer of the department said: “This would be a first-of-its-kind museum, developed with latest technologies, in this region (east India). The non-structural (interior) work has been conceptualised by the Canada-based master consultant of the project, Lord Cultural Resources. The development of the museum is based on the life and thoughts of Gautam Buddha through the use of murals, paintings, light and sound and animation. The work is in the final stage and we intend to inaugurate the museum on August 15.”

On the artefacts, he said: “These have been brought from several places in the state, including museums in Patna and Darbhanga. The exhibition galleries have been planned around traditional modes of display such as photographs on different phases of Buddha’s life and murals to interactive kiosks with touch screens.”

Sources said the photographs and murals have been carefully selected from Buddhist locations across the globe. A replica of the Bodhi tree at Mahabodhi Mahavihara in Bodhgaya, made of copper and acrylic, would also be present.

The meditation hall — an amphitheatre — has been fashioned as a cave with a 9-foot-tall statue of the Buddha in the Bhumisparsha Mudra placed in the centre.