Thursday, December 24, 2009

History about operations at Xuanzang Memorial Museum

1- Pundit Nehru sent a delegation of three top officials to identify suitable land for the Museum. The Education Secretary, Government of Bihar Shri K. Abraham was also with the delegation. All the ponds were shown to the team and finally the present site was identified as the suitable site for the museum.


2- Pundit Nehru visited Nalanda and laid the foundation of Xuanzang memorial Museum in1961. Later he addressed a big gathering at Nava Nalanda Mahavihara. Big crowd gathered from the surrounding villages

3- The place of memorial was earlier a play field

4- The Tanks around the Xuanzang were full of Lotus. And the leaves were used by the people of locality during marriages and other community function for serving food.

5- In 1967 famine the roots of the lotus called Kamalgatta was an important source of food for poor

6- In 70’s to mid 90’s the place was in dilapidated condition and was used by cattle grazers

7- For last 10 years the ponds are being allotted to fishermen for fisheries and since then the lotus have vanished from the local ponds.




Tourist Guide
1- In the beginning days the staff of the campus and the guards used to guide the tourists about the site.

2- Then in 60’s, one official guide was appointed by the ASI

3- In 50’s and 60’s some local people took the initiative and started guiding tourists but this was considered an unauthorized effort.

4- In 1971 the first guide training took place which made an effort to train people other than ASI staff for guiding purposes.

5- In 1975, a 2nd of such effort for Guide training took place.

Vendors
1- In the 1960’s, there were only three shops around the Nalanda ruins area meant to cater to tourist needs.– One tea stall (Motilal), Pan shop (Lala), Handicraft and Flowers (Chandu)

2- The present entrance was not gated at the time and a souvenir shop by the inside gate was established in 1970.

3- The main entrance as it stands today got very crowded with unorganized vendors in mid 80’s

4- Ravindra Pawar (district Magistrate) in 1992 ordered removal of all such vendors but they slowly crept back.

5- Some attempts were made to provide parking for horse cart and buses in the 1090’s but this arrangement lacked long term planning and didn’t sustain.

1 comment:

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