Two Buddhist monks at the international conference. Telegraph picture

Jajpur, Feb. 1: The three-day international conference on Buddhist heritage of Odisha got off to a colourful start today with much fanfare at Udayagiri here.

About 200 learned delegates consisting of world famous historians, archaeologists, scholars, tour operators, travel writers and hoteliers had assembled in the gathering. Among them, 20 foreign scholars from USA, Sri Lanka, Poland, Nepal, Japan, Bhutan, Korea and UK and about 100 scholars, including the Buddhist monks from all over the country, are taking part in the conference.

Organised to highlight the neglected Buddhist sites and treasures of Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri, considered as the Buddhist golden triangle of Odisha, and pull more tourists to the sites, the conference began with an interactive discussion among the visitors.

“I had been to the Buddhist sites at Udayagiri, Ratnagiri and Lalitgiri several times in the past. I was impressed by some unique features of these sites and even wrote books on them. The Buddhist monasteries, stupas and chaityagrihas in these sites are one of its kind,” said T. Donaldson, eminent historian of USA.

“I hope that more information on Buddhism will come out if more research and excavations are carried out in these sites by the proper agencies,” he said.

According to some researchers, the Buddhist sites at Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri have two wings — archaeology and art history — hardly found elsewhere. “It is a matter of regret that all the Buddhist sites here are still to be incorporated in the text books. The Nalanda Buddhist site finds place in the textbooks, because it was explored much earlier than these three sites in Odisha. These sites were excavated about three decades ago while Nalanda was excavated about a century ago. It will take more time to put these sites into historical text books,” said Chitta Baral of Arizona University of USA.

Rathnasiri Rathnayaka, lecturer of Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka, said: “I have come across many Buddhist sites in the world, but I find these sites quite exceptional, especially for their beautiful architecture. I didn’t know much about them earlier. Such conferences will go a long way in bringing publicity for the site in the international arena.”

The state tourism department that is hosting the conference has made special arrangements for accommodation, food and transportation of the visitors. “Our objective is to publicise Odisha’s Buddhist monuments and sites worldwide which will certainly boost the tourism potentiality,” said tourism and culture secretary Ashok Kumar Tripathy.

The guests were welcomed with colourful folk dances by the students of local Sobhaniya Sikhyasrama. They presented some enchanting recitals on Buddha and his philosophy while the students of Utkal University of Culture presented the opening chorus of Odisha at Toshali Udayagiri Resort.