The real Big B

Kushinagar is set for one of the biggest Buddha statues in the world, a 500-ft structure that would dwarf the Taj Mahal and the Bamiyan carvings.
Long after Gautam Buddha chose this dusty eastern Uttar Pradesh town as his eternal resting place, it remained Kushinagar's only claim to fame. Now, centuries later, the sleepy mofussil is waking up once again to what might be its other USP.Strangely, it's again due to Prince Siddharth's benign presence — this time, though, in the form of a mammoth 500-feet high statue in bronze which, for the record, is three times the height of the Statue of Liberty and four times the height of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Here's one more comparison for perspective: it is more than eight times the height of the Gomateshwar Bahubali sculpture at Shravanabelagola, Karnataka.
The Kushinagar statue is part of a project of the Maitreya Trust, an international Buddhist organisation, and work on it is scheduled to start in May. The town is abuzz with members of the Trust, top officials from chief minister Mayawati's secretariat and officials from the department of tourism who often camp here, talking to locals and chalking out their plans. An artist's impression of the figure shows Buddha sitting on a throne which will be made from pure bronze, and will actually take the form of a building. The design blueprint envisages a main entrance from the throne that'll bring you face to face with a 20-metre statue of Buddha. This will have, hold your breath, one lakh smaller statues of the Maitreya Buddha mounted on the surrounding walls.
Maitreya is one of the various avatars of Buddha. The next level will be devoted to Shakyamuni — the avatar of Buddha who established Buddhism. Other floors inside the throne structure will be dedicated to various other deities. In all, the building will house close to a staggering one million statues. An engineering marvel, the statue would sustain itself more on natural light. The builders plan to acquire a mind-boggling 750 acres of land to develop this pilgrimage destination. Architects and planners of this project estimate that the structure will last a millennium.
The Maitreya Trust, the force behind this worldclass project, was set up in 1990 with the objective of bringing long-term social and economic benefits to people in northern India, and sustained spiritual progress to the global community. The project was conceptualised by a Tibetan monk, Lama Thubten Yeshe, who wished to install a huge statue of the Buddha to inspire the world. After Yeshe's death in 1984, his dream was carried forward by Lal Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, a Nepal-born Buddhist monk and the spiritual director of the Foundation of the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition. Now, the Rinpoche also serves as the spiritual director of the Maitreya Trust.
The total cost of the project will be a whopping $195 million. A large part of it will be raised through liberal donations made by celebrity Buddhists like Hollywood actor Richard Gere. Various organisations , such as Mott MacDonald and the Westly Group of the UK, have also contributed generously. HSBC is the official banker of the project.
In an email response to TOI-Crest , a senior official at Maitreya said, "A sum of $20 million has already been spent on developing its engineering feasibility, and on its architectural, mechanical and electrical sustainability. Besides this, investments have also been made on studying the impact of the project on the environment, tourism, and the socio-economic structure of the region." The UP government entered a memorandum of understanding with the Maitreya Trust in 2003 to develop this project in Kushinagar.
Needless to say, the town will benefit immensely from tourism generated by the project. Poised to get international attention, the project will be supported by an airport as well. In addition, the Trust claims to put in place a series of social welfare measures for the people of Kushinagar. The project document contains plans to form a Kushinagar Special Development Area that would offer healthcare and educational services to the people of the town. Ram Sagar, owner of a small utility store, is looking forward eagerly to completion of the mission. "It will boost inflow of tourists and augment the income of small traders like me. It may also prod big hotels to set up properties here, the way they have done in Sarnath and Bodh Gaya," says Sagar.
The town, with a population of roughly 22 lakh, is already a pilgrimage centre for Buddhists who come to Kushinagar from all over the world to pay homage at the spot near the Hiranyavati river where their lord breathed his last in 483 BC. According to some texts, it is believed that the Buddha fell ill after eating a particular species of mushroom and later attained ‘parinirvana' , or the final nirvana. Many devotees, over the years, have built temples in this town, alongside the ruins of monasteries and stupas.
The two most-frequently visited places in Kushinagar are the Mahaparinirvana temple — which shelters the 1,500 year-old famous figure of the reclining Buddha — and the nearby site of his cremation.
However, despite its obvious developmental benefits , the project has run into some trouble with farmers who are protesting against the land acquisition exercise. Tourism secretary Avanish Awasthi, though, is unfazed. "All such issues have nearly been resolved, the project will not come up at the cost of land with a high density of population," he assured.
The Buddha, then, is all set to smile again.