The Magic of Buddhavanam

My impressions of Buddhavanam, a Buddhist Heritage Park at Nagarjuna Sagar in Telangana.

It is night, and as I sit in the verandah, I hear the buzz of crickets. Silence envelops the Haritha Vijay Vihar resort like a majestic shroud. Twenty feet away, the vast expanse of the Nagarjuna Sagar lake begins. Swapna is insde the room working on her laptop, while I try to get down to serious writing. Let me start with the events of today.

I wake up at 8 for a walk. The cool breeze, tall trees and leaf-lined roads provide the perfect excuse to step out for a date with nature and restart my exercise routine.

Kishore, the auto-rickshaw driver we appointed to ferry us around, is on time. He was planning to come earlier, but I ask him to defer the day’s sightseeing by a couple of hours, as I had to complete some tasks. His enthusiasm and keenness to show us around Nagarjuna Sagar is refreshing.

Once we get inside the autorickshaw, Kishore drives us to see Buddhavanam, a Buddhist Heritage Park in a place called Sunkishala. Buddhavanam consists of a Maha Stupa, 42 metres in diameter, at the centre, with other architectural tributes to Buddhism around the main dome. The middle dome has two floors, with the upper floor housing a meditation room, whose tranquility is like a balm for stressed city dwellers. The intricately carved walls depict the Jataka Tales and other significant events of the Buddha’s life.

Overwhelmed by the sheer size of Buddhavanam, Swapna and I decide to explore one more spot in detail, the Stupa Vanam. The Stupa Vanam consists of replicas of stupas from different parts of India and the world. In the India section, we see replicas of the Sanchi Stupa, the stupa at Sarnath, the one at Amaravati, and the stupa in Samath. Having walked for several hundreds of metres, we dread walking further. However, our shared love for history makes us forget our fatigue and continue with exploring.

Adjacent to the Indian stupa replicas lie their counterparts from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Tibet, Mayanmar, Cambodia, South Korea and Sri Lanka. The difference in architectural style of each stupa is apparent, helping us see how Buddhism and the local cultures interacted, fed off each other and produced a syncretic result. While the Pakistani and Afghani stupas showed the influence of Islamic architecture, those from Nepal & Tibet and Cambodia & South Korea had South Asina and Southeast Asian features.

The Buddhavanam is a microcosm of Buddhist architecture and culture from different parts of the world. It helps you to compare the architectural styles of Buddhist structures, as they vary from state to state and country to country. The vast exhibit proves how popular and firmly entrenched Buddhism was in India for close to a millenium. It also showcases the spread of Buddhism outside India, made possible by rulers like Ashoka, Kanishka, and others.