51-feet bronze statue of Lord Buddha to be installed in Kaushambi soon

In an effort to boost religious tourism in Uttar Pradesh, the state government has expedited the project to install a 51-feet tall bronze alloy statue of Lord Buddha in Kaushambi.

Under the department of culture, UP, the State Lalit Kala Academy has initiated the e-tender process through a short-term notice. After the allocation of work to the designated agency, the installation of the statue will be completed within seven months, according to officials from the state culture department.

The prototype of the statue will be created in the first month, followed by the completion and installation of the main statue within six months after receiving approval.

The statue of Lord Buddha will be completed using the hollow cast method. It will be cast through the lost wax process—a method of metal casting where molten metal is poured into a mold created by a wax model.

The bronze alloy for the statue will contain 85% copper, 5% lead, 5% tin, and 5% zinc. The bronze in the statue will weigh 52 tonnes, while 20 tonnes of iron will be used for its installation. The statue will be hollow inside, with a metal casting thickness of 7 to 8 mm.

Kaushambi, an important stopover on the Buddhist tourism circuit, is revered by Buddhists worldwide as a place where Lord Gautam Buddha visited many times to deliver his sermons.

Situated 55 km southwest of Prayagraj on the north bank of the Yamuna, Kaushambi became a district after being carved out of Prayagraj (then Allahabad) district on April 4, 1997. It attracts religious tourists from countries including Bhutan, Cambodia, Myanmar, South Korea, Japan and Sri Lanka.

These tourists, as part of their pilgrimage, follow the footsteps of Gautam Buddha from Lumbini in Nepal, where he was born, through Gaya in Bihar, where he attained enlightenment, to Sarnath, where he gave his first sermon, and Kushinagar and Kaushambi, where he preached extensively.