In a bid to develop Buddhist tourist circuit in the region, Tourism Department on Saturday organised a series of events at ancient Buddhist Ambaran, Akhnoor on Buddha Purnima.
The ancient Buddhist site was discovered during excavationsby Srinagar Circle of Archaeological Survey of India. However, it remained inshambles due to lack of the state and central governments.
It was for the first time, Tourism Department has organiseda special event at Ambaran to attract both domestic as well as internationaltourists.
“Department is making every effort to promote State’shistorical places which have tourism potential. Besides this, in view ofupcoming Amarnath Yatra target would be to divert people to local Jammudestinations,” said Director Tourism, Om Prakash Bhagat.
“Ambaran has potential and will promote it at internationallevel amid growing Buddhist tourism,” he added.
As per department’s spokesperson, over 200 people includingstudents of Buddhist faith, who originally hailing from flung areas likePaddar- Kishtwar, Zanskar-Kargil and Leh-Ladakh, residing in winter capitalparticipated in the celebrations with locals.
The team of Tourism Department started a heritage walk toAmbaran, locally known as ‘Pambaran, which culminated at historical Jio PotaGhat.
The importance of Ambaran lies in the fact that it is theearliest recorded Buddhist site in the entire region of Jammu. The site hasalready been visited by his holiness the Dalai Lama on November 9, 2011 whilestarting point at Bank of Chenab River where under a tree; coronation of RajaGulab Singh was performed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh on 17th June, 1822.
Buddhist students in colourful traditional dressesparticipated in 2 kilometers long walk along with locals chanting religioushymns.
The site was decorated with colourful Buddhist prayer flagswere the participants offered prayers along with fruits, flowers, lamps etc.Traditional folk cultural programme was also organised to mark thecelebrations.
Participants were also made aware of historic details aboutthe site by Jai Karan Singh Assistant Archaeologist from Archaeology Survey ofIndia, Srinagar Circle.
During the walk participants were also made aware about thehistorical and cultural importance of monuments like Jio Pota Temple and otherlandmark monuments like Pandav Gufa, Gurudwara Tapo Asthan Sant Baba SunderSingh Ji Alibegh, Parshuram Temple etc. by KP Singh. Ansuya Jamwal DeputyDirector Tourism, Jammu was also presented on the occasion.