Today I’ve decided to look up Buddhism from every angle. For, after all, a portion of Vizag’s history does seem to be tied up with Buddhism. Thotlakonda, Pavuralakonda, Bavikonda….the list of kondas being discovered is increasing by the year.
I remember going to Thotlalkonda the first time in 2000. It really did look long-abandoned, ruined, and beautiful. Just a year or so later, I visited it again, this time with my parents and a friend from the Asian College of Journalism. Padmini Thorakumbura—a Sri Lankan Sihalese girl—was keen on visiting the Buddhist ruins in Vizag, as she thought they might be important to her religion. This time, the ruins were ruined. They had been converted into a tourist attraction. The road was lined with cut grass and garden flowers. The bricks had all been gathered and laid down as though a new colony of Buddhisht monks were to take up residence there any day. In a word, things looked ugly. But who am I to comment on what the Archeological department, in all its wisdom, considered the best course of action?
I remember going to Thotlalkonda the first time in 2000. It really did look long-abandoned, ruined, and beautiful. Just a year or so later, I visited it again, this time with my parents and a friend from the Asian College of Journalism. Padmini Thorakumbura—a Sri Lankan Sihalese girl—was keen on visiting the Buddhist ruins in Vizag, as she thought they might be important to her religion. This time, the ruins were ruined. They had been converted into a tourist attraction. The road was lined with cut grass and garden flowers. The bricks had all been gathered and laid down as though a new colony of Buddhisht monks were to take up residence there any day. In a word, things looked ugly. But who am I to comment on what the Archeological department, in all its wisdom, considered the best course of action?
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