Bhubaneswar, Feb. 3: The second International Conference on Buddhism today concluded at Udayagiri in Jajpur.

The state culture and tourism department hosted the three-day event on “Buddhist heritage and promotion of tourism”.

Delegates, including a few researchers and tour operators from Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, France and Poland as well as from all over the state, today visited the Odisha State Maritime Museum at Jobra in Cuttack to understand the role of maritime culture of ancient Kalinga in popularising Buddhism here.

Earlier today, the conference at Udayagiri saw a panel discussion wherein members of the state tourism department and experts on the Southeast Asian studies from Odisha interacted with the guest tour operators.

“During the three-day event, we informed the tour operators and visiting scholars about the latest findings from the excavations carried out by the archaeologists of the Odishan Institute of Maritime and Southeast Asian Studies. We stumbled upon evidences related to the existence of an urban settlement at Radhanagar that again comes under the Jajpur district, which houses numerous Buddhist historical sites such as Langudi, Kayama, Tarapur, Deuli, Neulapur and Vajragiri,” said Sunil Patnaik, secretary of the institute. The excavations at Radhanagar were carried out between 2011 and 2013.

The remains of the site at Radhanagar are archaeologically significant, as it is the only such site in Odisha after Sisupalgarh fortified settlement. The region might have flourished from 400BC to 100BC and then declined towards 500AD, said Patnaik.

Tour operators and visitors from other countries also put forward their ideas and suggestions at the conference. While some said that despite such a rich Buddhist culture of Odisha, it was not known outside, others expressed their views that there were enthusiastic pilgrims and tourism that wished to come here but did not know how.

“This region is very peaceful and beautiful. It holds the spirit of Buddhism even today. My family would be glad to be here. But back home we know of the sites in Bihar and not about those in Odisha,” said Ajay Brajacharya, a student of Nepal.

“A proper roadmap to pull in pilgrims and Buddhist tourists is required. Not much has changed since the last conference in 2013,” said Benjamin Simon, president of the Travel Agents’ Association of Odisha.

After the inaugural ceremony on Saturday, when discussions were held among the visitors and administrators of the district and the officials of the tourism and culture, the visitors were taken for sightseeing around various Buddhist tourist attractions in Bhubaneswar and Jajpur. They started from Dhauli on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, visited the rock edicts of Asoka and the Shanti stupa and then went to visit Lalitgiri, Udayagiri and Ratnagiri, the Buddhist golden triangle of the state.