The Buddhist stupa at Kesariya. Telegraph picture

Kesariya (East Champaran), Aug. 16: Promises and announcements made by politicians and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials have failed to change the face of the Buddhist stupa at Kesariya in the past three years.

Superintendent archaeologist, P.K. Mishra, who visited site in November 2007, said: “Widely accepted as the tallest Buddhist stupa in the world, this important monument is not known to the world for want of desired projection.”

Excavation process at the site has also come to a grinding halt. Devilal Paswan, a guard at the historical site, said excavation work on the three sides of the stupa is yet to be completed. He added that the 36-feet-high dome over the 104.10 feet tall stupa, which had collapsed in the 1934 earthquake, is also to be constructed, giving a complete look to the monument.

Mishra, who had restarted the excavation work four years back, near the stupa site at Kesariya after a gap of four years, expected several epigraphical records in the form of plaques or inscriptions in the ancient Brahmese script to be laying beneath the surroundings near the site. “It is high time to make discoveries in the light of Kanningham’s report about this important archaeological site of the world,” said Mishra in 2007.

He also said that the excavation work at the site was very slow, but admitted that the department had prepared a thorough proposal for the site so that the original form of the stupa would not be damaged. He lamented that the rear portion of the stupa was damaged because of rain water and added that the present excavation team had proposed for a scientific drainage system near Kesariya.

The ASI had also planned to erect a cultural text near the excavation site to show the developments and findings of the excavation process and proposed to set up a site museum to display the materials found during excavation. All these have remained a distant dream so far.

Mishra said that fencing work near the site had started and the state horticulture department was requested to lay the foundation of a beautiful garden near the stupa to attract tourists. East Champaran district magistrate was requested for making additional arrangements for 60 acres of land, for further excavation of two small mountains near the site. Presently, a fencing wall has been erected around the stupa from two sides. The remaining two sides are still open.

The number of tourists continues to increase every day at Kesariya but they are deprived of drinking water, if they fail to carry water bottles of their own. The site even lacks a bathroom for the tourists.