Kendrapada, August 21 (Odisha.in) At least a thousand residents of Lalitgiri and its near by villages in Orissa’s Jajpur district Tuesday blocked a road to press their demands for keeping the relics of lord Gautam Buddha at the Lalitgiri excavation site from where the relics were found in four containers during excavation in 1982.
The villagers blocked the national highway no- 5(A) for at least three hours at Lalitigiri Chhack, a district police official told Odisha.in
Lalitgiri is one of the oldest Buddhist sites, in Jajpur district of Orissa. Four golden caskets, three of which contained the rarest of rare relics of Lord Buddha was recovered in 1982 from Lalitgiri while the excavation was undertaken by Archeological Survey of India.
The relics were kept inside golden caskets with gold wrappers stored in three layers first being the stone followed by the Silver caskets. It is now confined to the dark strong room of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) since past 25 years
ASI had recently said that it will shift the casket to Ratnagiri Buddhist Museum since there is no safe place or Museum at Lalitgiri.
Odisha.in