Along with the preservation of historic sites, the local units in Rupandehi district have prioritised the construction of various structures related to Gautam Buddha for the tourism year 2020.

As many as 10 out of the total of 16 local units have started installing Buddha’s statues and building parks to beautify their towns and promote tourism during Visit Nepal 2020.

“Our main objective is to attract tourists by building structures related to Lord Buddha,” said Basudev Ghimire, mayor of Tilottama Municipality, which lies a few kilometres from Lumbini.

The municipality has installed 22 statues of Buddha along the Butwal-Bhairahawa section of the Siddhartha Highway.

Ghimire said the municipality has also prioritised the construction of the feeder roads connecting the Tilottama-Lumbini-Devdaha road. According to Ghimire, homestays are in operation in Semari while the local unit has been carrying out works to conserve Baunnakoti lake and other Buddhist Vihars and temples in the area.

Similarly, Siddhartha Nagar Municipality has been constructing a Buddha Gate at Belhiya, a border point between Nepal and India. A life-size statue of Buddha is under construction in the Buspark area. Many statues of Buddha have been installed along the Belhiya-Lumbini road.

“Siddhartha Nagar was just a pitstop for tourists travelling to and from Lumbini. But we are trying to change that now. We have launched a campaign to get benefits from the tourists visiting Lumbini,” said Mayor Hari Prasad Adhikari. According to him, the municipality has allocated a budget of Rs 200 million to promote tourism.

Sainamaina, another municipality in Rupandehi that has several Buddha-era monuments, has started preserving several archaeologically important objects and places related to Gautam Buddha. The municipality has set up a temporary museum at Sirantol and kept historical statues, bricks, utensils, tools and ruins of houses believed to have been built during Buddha’s lifetime. Likewise, 11 ancient wells—including Badakuwa and Ranikuwa—have been preserved in various places in Sainamaina.

“Construction work to set up a museum in the area has started,” said Mayor Chitra Bahadur Karki. The federal government has allocated Rs 100 million to set up the museum in the current fiscal year.