On the 48th Ekamra Walks here on Sunday, out of 50 walkers, 25 came from Australia, USA and France, which shows that the event is getting increasingly popular among the foreigners, apart from the country men. It can be mentioned here that of the total 2,500 visitors who joined the heritage walk in the Old town of the city, as many as 300 came from 24 different nations. And interestingly, social media and references from friends and the media highlights including the featuring of the heritage walk in the internet have inspired the tourists to come to the historic Bhubaneswar city and enjoy the tour.
There were five French citizens, who were in India to participate in the Pushkar fair. Earlier they came to India twice, but they liked the temples of Bhubaneswar very much. David Rosenheim and Jackie Rosenheim came from California, US with their sons Oliver and Judah. They are very much happy to explore and know about the rich temple traditions of the Old city and are also likely to continue exploring the city. David Rosenheim said, “We are extremely lucky to be part of Ekamra Walks as it provided an insight into the rich temple building architecture and style of the Kalingan era. I am really happy that many temples are so well preserved.’’
The foreign tourists were very much attracted towards the beautiful Sari Temple and its excavation site nearby. They spent more time on the campus of the temple, which comes along the old Sanskrit college road on the bank of Bindusagar lake.
Notably, the ASI experts have excavated a portion of the temple first towards the end of 2014 and then it continued and the repair work also started showcasing the traditional temple building style with organic material as in the past there was no use of cementing materials. The Sari Temple belongs to 12th Century AD.
The local kids were four in number and they also made friendship with the two American siblings and enjoyed the walk very much. Rudra, the local kid from Old town, who also belongs to a servitor’s family, said, “I am happy to find new friends through Ekamra Walks and I wish I would continue my participation on every Sunday morning.’’
The participants visited Mukteswar, Parsurameswar, Kotitirtheswar,
Swarnajaleswar, Bindusagar, Ananta Vasudev, Old Dharamshala, lingaraj Temple, Chitrakarini, Sari, Mohini and medicinal plant garden, Ekamra Van.