{"id":65394,"date":"2026-01-29T18:05:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T12:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=65394"},"modified":"2026-01-30T13:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T07:34:43","slug":"odisha-buddhist-diamond-triangle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/29-01-2026\/odisha-buddhist-diamond-triangle","title":{"rendered":"Diamond Triangle of Buddhist Sites in Odisha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS1\/ Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>UNESCO has reportedly included three Buddhist heritage sites from Odisha- Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri, in India\u2019s tentative list for potential recognition as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The tentative list identifies sites<\/strong> that are of outstanding universal value, either culturally or naturally, and suitable for potential inscription in the World Heritage List<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These sites, collectively known as the <strong>\u2018Diamond Triangle<\/strong>\u2019, are believed to reflect the spread and evolution of all three major schools of Buddhism: <strong>Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Buddhist Site of Lalitagiri, Cuttack<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Location:<\/strong> It is located on <strong>Nandapahad hillock <\/strong>in the Assia hill range, within the Birupa river valley.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It shows uninterrupted cultural continuity from the <strong>2nd\u20133rd century BCE to the 13th century CE.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Archaeological Findings:<\/strong> Discovery of an inscribed terracotta sealing reading <strong>\u201cSri Chandraditya Vihara Samagra Arya Bhikshu Sanghasa\u201d<\/strong> (9th\u201310th century CE).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A massive stupa of <strong>Theravada phase<\/strong> containing relic caskets of <strong>khondalite stone, with inner steatite, silver, and gold caskets.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Images from Mahayana and Vajrayana pantheon such as<strong> Vajrapani, Manjusri, Tara, Jambhala, Hariti, and Aparajita.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Buddhist Site of Udayagiri, Jajpur<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Location: <\/strong>It is situated in the Assia hill range on the right bank of the Birupa River.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is also known as<strong> \u201cSunrise Hill\u201d<\/strong> due to its east-facing crescent-shaped hill.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Architectural Importance: <\/strong>Discovery of a massive Chaityagriha showing architectural evolution from circular to apsidal to rectangular.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sculptures of <strong>Avalokiteswara (colossal), Tara, Manjusri, Bhrikuti, Hariti, Chunda, Maitreya, Vairochana, Vasudhara<\/strong>, and others.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Inscriptions with <strong>Buddhist Dharanis on terracotta plaques<\/strong> and stone tablets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Buddhist Site of Ratnagiri, Jajpur<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Location:<\/strong> It is located in the Assia hill range on the left bank of the <strong>Kelua River<\/strong>, a distributary of the Brahmani.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is also Known as the <strong>\u201cHill of Jewels\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Patronage: <\/strong>It received major patronage from the <strong>Bhaumakara dynasty (8th\u201310th century CE).<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Copperplate inscription<\/strong> records residence of Queen Karpurashri, indicating female patronage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/tentativelists\/6926\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>UNESCO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> UNESCO has reportedly included three Buddhist heritage sites from Odisha- Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri, in India\u2019s tentative list for potential recognition as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> About <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> The tentative list identifies sites that are of outstanding universal value, either culturally or naturally, and suitable for potential inscription in the World Heritage List <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> These sites, collectively known as the \u2018Diamond Triangle\u2019, are believed to reflect the spread and evolution of all three major schools of Buddhism: Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana. <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/29-01-2026\/odisha-buddhist-diamond-triangle \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65458,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65394\/revisions\/65458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}