A Study on the Ruins of Buddhist Monasteries in West Bengal in the Context of Buddhist Tourism Development

Abstract

Buddhism and its heritage draw the attention of around 10 percent of total tourist traffic in India but unfortunately, West Bengal is not getting its justified share although the country was under Buddhist rule for about 400 year since the mid 8th century. None of the available studies have focused on its reasons. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the scope of Buddhist tourism in West Bengal while addressing this research gap found from interdisciplinary literature survey. Although there is abundance of descriptive historical and archaeological studies on abandoned Buddhist monasteries of West Bengal, spatial analysis dedicated to Buddhist tourism development is rare. Extensive literature survey has been followed by committed field workto obtain data which are historiographic, toponymic and archaeological in nature. IRSLISS III images have been analyzed to evaluate the changing course of rivers on the Buddhist ruins and the effects of flooding on them. An appraisal is made on policy measures to exploit the maximum potentials of Buddhist tourism which may bring opportunities of income and scope of employment, thereby contributing to backward area development.