HYDERABAD: Sirpur in Kumaram Bheem district will have its own Tank Bund soon as a 37-feet-tall Buddha Statue is being sculpted to be installed at the centre of the Nagamma Cheruvu.
Taking inspiration from Hyderabad’s Tank Bund, Sirpur MLA Koneru Konappa decided to go ahead with a similar Buddha Statue installed in the lake. The statue is being sculpted by SD Hari Prasad, sculptor of the Buddha statue for the Buddhavanam project in Nagarjuna Sagar. Prasad said that the 37-feet statue being carved out of a single stone is being sculpted as per the Satavahana style.
Konappa said, “Looking at the Buddha statue in Hyderabad feels peaceful. I had promised that we will also have a similar statue at the centre of Nagmma Cheruvu in Sirpur. In a couple of months the statue will be completed and installed.”
The MLA was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day-long international conference on ‘Global Celebration of Buddhist Heritage in Telangana’, jointly organised by the Buddhavanam Project and Telangana Tourism department on Thursday.
As many as 63 delegates from 15 countries are participating in the conference. Speaking on the occasion, speaker of Telangana Assembly S Madhusudana Chary, stressed on following the teachings of Gautama Buddha as a way to break the structures of discrimination prevalent in today’s society.
Mallepalli Laxmaiah, special officer of Buddhavanam Project, said that Dr BR Ambedkar included the concepts of liberty, equality and fraternity in the Indian Constitution not learning about it from the French Revolution but from ideals enshrined in Buddhism. Sunita M Bhagwat, commissioner, department of tourism, said that 28 Buddhist sites have been identified in Telangana for development. Of this, nine will be developed as destination sites.