IOR delegates marvel at Sun Temple, Odisha Maritime Museum

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 24:

Delegates from Indian Ocean RIM Countries visiting Odisha for the International Conference on ‘India and Indian Ocean: Renewing the Maritime Trade and Civilisational Linkages’ today visited the famous Sun Temple at Konark and the Maritime Museum in Cuttack.

“The beauty and grandeur of the place is just spell-binding. The magnificent creativity and artistic carvings on stone have made Konark one of the wonders in the World,” said Professor Chotima Chaturawong, Faculty of Architecture of Silpakorn University, Thailand who attended the three-day International conference at Bhubaneswar and visited the Sun Temple for the first time.

“After visiting this historical place, I came to know about the very interesting legend that it took 1,200 sculptors to work non-stop for 12 years to build the shrine, When they failed to finish it, a small boy, son of a sculptor, took it upon him and fixed the final stone atop the structure,” she added in awe.

The visitors got nostalgic seeing the magnificent art work of Black Pagoda with many praising the architecture and sculpture lavishly.

Following the visit to the temple, the delegates took a splash at The Bay of Bengal, the largest bay in the world which also forms the north-eastern part of the Indian Ocean.

After completion of the three-day conference a team of 55 Indian and foreign delegates including researchers and scholars from several Indian Ocean Region (IOR) Countries also visited the Odisha Maritime Museum at Cuttack as part of site seeing programme.

“I have not seen anything like this before. It offers a comprehensive perspective of the state’s maritime heritage. The galleries display a rare peep into the maritime history, including boat-building techniques, maritime rituals and traditions, navigation, monuments along the Odisha coast, a boat display shed and a repair jetty,” said Radhika Seshan, a Historian from University of Pune.