The Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh is the latest entrant in India's list of international Airports. The airport is expected to provide seamless connectivity to people from Southeast and East Asian countries for Buddhist Pilgrimage Tourism.
Context
The Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh is the latest entrant in India's list of international Airports. The airport is expected to provide seamless connectivity to people from Southeast and East Asian countries for Buddhist Pilgrimage Tourism.
Key-points
- The opening of Kushinagar International Airport is expected to be a milestone in India-Sri Lanka relations.
- During the opening of the Airport, Sri Lanka is to present India pictures of two murals paintings:
- One Mural Painting depicts Arahat Bhikkhu ’Mahinda, son of Emperor Ashoka delivering a Buddha message to King Devanampiyatissa of Sri Lanka.
- One shows the arrival of ‘The hero Bhikkhuni’ Sanghamitta, the daughter of the Emperor, Sri Lanka, holding a small stem of the ‘sacred tree of Bodhi’ which Siddh?rtha Gautama is believed to have received enlightenment under.
- The Buddhist circuit shows the use of soft power in India's foreign policy.
- Emphasis on Buddhist unity will help to combat the growing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka and improve human relations ( (especially in the context of the aftermath of the Sri Lankan Civil War).
- Further, the Buddhist faith, due to its emphasis on peaceful co-existence and its wide pan-Asian presence, lends itself well to soft-power diplomacy.
About the Buddhist Circuit
- In 2014-15, the Department of Tourism launched the Swadesh Darshan program to develop theme-based tourism circuits in terms of high tourism value.
- The Department has identified the Buddhist Circuit as one of the fifteen thematic circuits for development under this program.
- The Buddhist circuit is the path that follows the footsteps of the Buddha from Lumbini in Nepal to Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh India, where he died.
- Buddhist pilgrims look to Kushinagar as a shrine, believing that Gautama Buddha delivered his last sermon and received the ‘Mahaparinirvana’ or salvation.
- Investing in the Buddhist Circuit is the result of the first partnership between
- The Government of India’s Ministry of Tourism
- The State Governments of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh
- The private sector
- Buddhist monasteries and sects
- The World Bank Group
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