About the Place & what to see:

The recent findings from excavations and the identifications of a number of sites with Buddhist remains open up a new vista in the field of Buddhist Tourism in Orissa. Dhauli hill on the bank of the river Daya is a little away from the main road to Puri/Konark from Bhubaneswar. Ashoka changed his mind in favor of spiritual conquests in preference to war exploits after the Kalinga war which was fought here in the 3rd century B.C. This place motivated the Kalinga Nippon-Buddha Sangha to establish a peace pagoda or Shanti Stupa at Dhauli along with the construction of a monastery called Saddharma Vihar Lalitagiri, the earliest Buddhist complex of 1st century A.D. has a huge brick monastery, the remains of a Chaitya hall, a number of votive stupas and a renovated stone stupa at the apex of a small rugged sand stone hill dominates the rural greenery around. At Ratnagiri, excavations revealed the establishment of a Buddhist center from the time of Narasimha Gupta Baladitya (first half of the sixth century A.D.). At Udaygiri excavations brought to light a sprawling complex of brick monastery with a number of Buddhist sculptures. Infact the entire area is found located at the foothills of a large hill acting as the backdrop of the area.

Approach

Air: Indian Airlines and Air Sahara has flights from Delhi, Calcutta, Visakhapatnam, Raipur, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai.

Road:  Bhubaneswar railway station is connected to almost all railway stations of orissa.