Berhampur, Orissa – The Orissa government today declared as a tourist destination the Tibetan settlement at Jiranga area in Gajapati district, where Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama inaugurated south Asia’s biggest monastery.
“We have declared Jiranga along with Khasada, a nearby village where a natural waterfall is located, as tourist spots. The notification in this regard had been handed over to the Dalai Lama,” state tourism and culture minister Debi Prasad Mishra told reporters here.
The Dalai Lama today consecrated the 70-foot-high and five-storey Rigon Thupten Mindoling monastery, spread over about 10 acres of land, in the presence of lamas who gathered here from across the world.
The minister said the government would develop infrastructure facilities like road connectivity from Taptapani, another tourist destination about 50 km from here in Ganjam district, to Jiranga for easy approach to the Tibetan settlement. Taptapani is famous for its hot-spring.
