Day 255 of Indian places making you smile – The Peace pagoda at Dauligiri
Our next stop on the Orissa road trip was at Dauligiri. This is the site of the famous Kalinga war about which we had learnt so much in our school history text books. It was here that many people lost their lives in the battlefield and this had prompted King Ashoka to give up a life of violence and take up a life of peace.
At this site we now have a towering white Buddhist peace pagoda. We climbed up the steps for a 360* spectacular view of the countryside. It is said that the Kalinga river, now seemingly white in colour had turned red because of the blood of all the soldiers in the battle. On the four sides of the circular pagoda were four statues of the smiling Buddha, with other panels depicting stories from his life. We sat in silence for sometime and tried to embrace the serenity of the place. Thankfully there were not too many people around.
We then quietly made our way to the car and wondered how long it would take for this peaceful ambience to get shattered by the reality of modern traffic and noise and yes we did visit a store selling a variety of metal objects
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So which Indian place made you smile today?
Please share your experience of Indian places that made you smile
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