The intangible heritage

1. Potter There are 15 potter families in the area actively pursuing the art of pottery. This is a poor community and is fighting for its survival. The situation of potters is not good; the sale is limited to festivals and religious purpose. And they say such religious demands are seasonal and have nothing to do with quality of the product. This has lead to deterioration of the quality over a period of time. The cost and availability of raw material is also problem, firewood and cow dung cakes are not easily available. We shared with them purpose of the discussion i.e. development of terracotta souvenirs for tourists. They shared with us few such terracotta work they did in past. On being asked if they would like to start a unit at Sanskritik Gram, few of them agreed. They also added the earth at Xuanzang memorial is very suited for making terracotta items.

2. Ironsmith
Bargaon has 7 Iron foundries. Ironsmiths used to be well off some 10 years ago; but since most of their work is associated with repair of agriculture equipments and with coming of new machines they are getting very few repair opportunities, the economic situation is not as healthy as it used to be. With good transport links to Bihar Sharif lots of people prefer going to Bihar Sharif for repair works. We looked for an ironsmith who could make souvenirs by metal casting and met Om prakash viswkarma an ironsmith who had done lots of casting work before. He showed us a metal bush used in pump sets which he made by casting in his foundry. We discussed with him if he ever thought of making some cast based souvenirs. He said he had this in mind but he never actually tried it. He asked us if we can get him a dye prepared he can try to prepare the cast.

3. Stone work – Patthar katti
Stone based small souvenirs are very popular with the tourists in the Buddhist circuit. To involve some sculptor interested in participating at Sanskritik gram we visited Patharkatti, the village which has cluster of traditional artisans. The first village on way to Patharkatti is khukari; this village has as many as 3000 people engaged with the sculpture making work. Traditionally the work was limited to the Gaud Brahmins who migrated from Rajasthan on invitation of Rani Ahilyabai of Indore. Some 400 years ago the 1300 Gaud Brahmins built the famous Vishnupad Temple. Most of the families stayed back and continued the sculpture making from local stones. In last 20 years most of the gaud Brahmins have moved back to other places and only 4 families are left at Patharkatti. This craft was limited to the Gaud Brahmins till recently when in 1950’s Upendar Maharathi started a training centre to involve people from other communities. Since its inception many local people have taken training and the craft at its peak was spread in as many 10 villages. Presently the craft is limited to four villages and the biggest clusters are at khukari, Patharkatti and Tenbigha. There are few smaller clusters at Niyampur and Banwariganj all the villages in same vicinity.

The craft is not in much demand these days. Till about 15 years ago a lots of tourists frequented the place but now the number has gone down. Sculptures made are sold at various places through the middlemen and agents who have showrooms at Gaya, Rajgir and other tourist destinations. Few of the artisans also have showrooms at Bodh Gaya. Sale is generally low except for the tourist season.

Stone quarries have been exploited to maximum and most of the quarries are not left with good stone in reach. Lots of quarries require cleaning by removing earth from around it. Artisans now bring stones from other places like Dumka in Jharkhand, Sabja green stone and red sandstone from Chunar, Uttar Pradesh. Paliya stone from Jhansi region is particularly in demand because it’s a soft stone and suitable for making small idols. Children of age 8 to 10 are specialized in making small idols and make up to 10 to 12 piece a day. They sell it for Rs 10/ piece.

Marble made sculptor is very much in demand generally. They bring Marble from Rajasthan. There are many varieties of stones found in local mines; Patharkatti has around 27 varieties of stones available in its mines.
Some efforts were made to make a cooperative of artisans, but some anti-social elements murdered the key organizer and since then no another effort has been made to revive the cooperative. Local mines are suitable for large sculptures. Large sculpture takes lots of time to make and are costly hence hard to sell. Foreigners generally prefer small sculptures.

When asked why you don’t make small sculpture from local stone they said the stones are not suitable. They said Baijana mines on Murli hill have suitable stones for making small sculptures up to 2 inches but they require some earth clearing work. Mines at Dhanmahua are good for small sculpture but are now illegally occupied by some people who don’t allow them to quarry stones. Another mine they said is Pir mines which has good black stone suitable for 5 to 6 inch small sculptures. The popular varieties of stones mined locally are motiya granite, tambala, reda, hansraj, jhingpathar and parajitiya.

Another problem is electricity most of the work now is done with generator sets.

Ms Rajbala Verma DM, Gaya in 1993 visited the place and facilitated credit facility to many Artisans. She also provided marketing outlet to interested artisans at Bodh Gaya. She also sanctioned Rs, 1 Lac for clearing earth from one of the mines, though the amount was not sufficient and work is still unfinished.

4. Lac crafts (also Lacquer, Lahti)
Lac crafts are traditionally very predominant in Bihar. At NNMSG we plan to develop some souvenirs based on Lac. Lac, the raw material is easily available locally and the products are easy make. We visited Village Chandasi in Noor Sarai Block; the village has some 70 odd women’s group who has taken training on making Lahti bangles. A few women got interested in providing know-how to our cooperative members. In coming months we will organize a small workshop for basic training for crafts based on Lac. We will need help of product designers for development of range of suitable souvenirs made from Lac.

Discussions with Cultural groups

Almost all the villages in vicinity have a Nautnki group. These groups perform Nautnki during durga puja and lakshmi puja. Such functions are funded by community contributions. Bargaon has been a popular religious centre for many centuries and the place was always a hub of cultural activities. Bargaon always had an active Nautnki and cultural group. In 1940’s village had the very popular Nalanda Natya Parisad which was very active till 2000. With efforts of Nehru Yuva Kendra such cultural clubs were initiated in many villages. Navnadan Yuva Kendra was formed in mid 80”s at Bargaon. Presently one such body called Nalanda Musical Group is active which has around 20 odd members from all neighboring villages.

In meetings we had a discussion on preparing a calendar of all religious function and events that can serve as resource basket of cultural experience. This resource basket will help in designing suitable cultural experiences for tourist. It was also decided to revive all the traditional musical instruments; this could be done only by preparing list of all traditional musical instruments prevalent here. A list of all such instruments was prepared and possible efforts were made to take pictures of all traditional instruments and identification of people who could play these musical instruments.

Engaging youths through the Sports clubs

A meeting with members of sports club was organized at Chinese temple, Kapatiya. More than 20 participants of 5 different sports club participated in the discussion. All the sports clubs were formed under the Nehru Yuva Kendra in early nineties. Most of the sports clubs are now defunct and now exists only on paper.

There was a discussion on what kind of sports can interest tourists and how we can organize it for better participation of tourists. Lots of suggestion came, few suggested cricket, and few said football is a better option. On being asked what is so unique about these sports and why a tourist should be interested in watching us play cricket. Participants agreed tourist will not get interested in watching us play cricket or football. We asked participants to think something traditional, unique to place and participative sport, which could involve the visitors. Lots of suggestion came regarding traditional sports like kabbadi, Kho-Kho etc. After some discussion on various possibilities all of us agreed to start with Buddhiya Kabbadi this year and experiment with other sports later.

They shared their experience of difficulties they faced while working with Nehru Yuva Kendra and how they sustained their clubs. Next few meetings revolved around how the clubs can be maintained and the logistics of playing the sports. We discussed on possible sponsorships and other methods of generating revenues.
A summary of the discussion is given below,

1- Sports Clubs and teams need to be reoriented for the tourism purposes.

2- A revenue model to be developed for sustenance of the clubs and sports

3- A start should to be done this tourist season by organizing a few Buddhiya kabbadi matches

4- A marketing plan and discussion with tour operators and stakeholders about promoting such endeavors.

There have been some considerable development in achieving the goals set for a youth sports activity and we'll the sharing the latest and the greatest in upcoming weeks...

Thinking outside the box

Looking beyond the set pattern
We had a few more meetings with the youth to explore the possibilities and making a suitable action plan. We initiated a discussion by asking the participants to contribute to the pool of ideas about what can be offered to the tourists from the available resources. We asked if anybody has heard about home stays, bed and breakfast initiatives and Meal at local homes. Almost all of them responded with a positive nod and that these are experiences that they have either seen it themselves or heard from friends about its popularity at many tourist destinations.

The answer to our next question wasn’t surprising; we asked if we can do it here at Nalanda.

“Yes”, said a few participants. They felt Nalanda has potential and lack of any other place to stay in the vicinity adds to its suitability. A summary of the discussion is given below,

1- There are many houses in Surajpur and surrounding villages owners of which don’t stay here. Some suitable houses can be taken on lease and suitably modified for home stays and meal and homes facilities

2- This will require some legislation on guidelines, specifications , facilities and requirements for such initiative based on bottom-up approach

3- This should be given status of economic activity and loan facilities should be made available

4- Capacity building of interested people and gathering information on how to manage and run such an enterprise,

Guiding, Cultural experience, packaged tours and Tour operations
In follow-up meetings more local youth participated in discussions. The youth participants felt the present tourism is limited to few sites and the vicinity has lot more to offer. Other places should be included in the tourist circuit and this will also require a new breed of tourist guides who are well equipped to take challenges the sector offers. Few youth who had some exposure in tour operation said they want to start such initiative but the fear of failure and loss of capital investment prevents them from taking such initiative. We shared with the participants the idea of organizing some traditional sports and performing arts during tourism season and elicited their reaction and suggestions. We also discussed on why and how to start the tour operation from Nalanda.

Summary of discussion,

1- Organized tourism at Nalanda is managed by tour operators at other distant places. This is a big hindrance in the growth of tourism at place.

2- Lack of communication and constructive partnerships among the stakeholders on tourism development in and around Nalanda

3- All the villages have sports club, it was decided to organize a separate meeting with the sports clubs on possibility of organizing annual sports events to attract tourists.

4- Many youth participants were ex-students of Nava Nalanda Mahavihara; they felt Mahavihar is best suited for starting job oriented course in tourism sector. Courses on foreign language, tourist guides and tour operation will benefit youth of the locality.

Findings of our discussions

The awareness of the youth is considerable high as was evident from the map that they developed. The negative and positive impact map was very revealing. Unlike the elders, youth didn’t consider land acquisition to be a bad impact and later in the discussion they told it’s very nice that development is taking place. Rather they showed interest in the timeline of ongoing projects and wondered what more is being planned for the area.

The positive impact map again showed the indirect benefits they are drawing from Nalanda, electricity, road and other infrastructure. Bad impact map described in detail, the traffic congestion at key places, the poor disposal of waste and littering and lack of basic amenities at all the tourist destinations especially around the Ancient Nalanda Remains. Beggary at tourist places seemed to emerge as a social concern among both women and youth group discussion.
These Exercises were followed by discussion; at all the places the participants shared their experiences with the tourists and tourism. Few of them shared how in past a few times they have offered a place to stay to the stranded tourists. A few of them even volunteered as guides to tourists and took them around. The discussion revolved around opportunities from tourism and it was gathered that youth had sufficient awareness on the opportunities that can be further explored. Many of the local youth are employed in the sector, many have done foreign language course and are working with different travel agencies. When asked about why no effort is being made at Nalanda by experienced youth, we were told about a few people who have taken such initiatives at local level but the scale of operation is very small and the area of impact very minimal.

The major bottlenecks as they emerged from the discussion are,

1- Lots of initial capital investment is required

2- Big players have established themselves at Bodh Gaya, Varanasi and other destinations and they are not opening any branches or office locally here but prefer to operate from these key locations.

3- Guide licensing and training is almost unheard of; there has not been any such effort in last 20 years or so.

4- Place is already much unorganized and too crowded for any new initiatives to take place. Besides there is no system in place where guidance could be offered on a community basis for a start up.

The discussion on bottleneck was followed by a positive discussion about what we can do collectively and what is the problem and what are the possible solutions.

Summary of the positive discussions

1- Place is too congested because of lack of capacity. The place needs a Master Plan which can manage the tourist rush and take care of community interests.

2- In the current scenario the tourist spends very little quality time at Nalanda, this setup offers very little or no opportunity for interaction with the community

3- The place needs effort for positive communication among the stakeholders ASI, Tourism department, district administration and the local community

4- Nava Nalanda Mahavihar should a play a bigger role in providing tourism related educational courses.

Activities with Youth

In the previous many posts we focused of women in the community as we feel that they need to be empowered not just financially but by giving them avenues so that they can find a path for themselves. Youth of the area is another group that needs a lot of structure and attention. They are a potential source of energy and we need to tap into their enthusiasm to channel proper growth. In the discussions that follow we’ll be mainly addressing the interactions and outcomes that we gained from them.

We informally met the youth groups of Bargaon, Surajpur, Muzzafarpur and Nirmal Bigha. Youth at all the villages were very positive about any such discussion and the ways the community can benefit from tourism. The dates and the place for the PRA were fixed.

We had separate meetings with Girls and the Boys. The PRA exercise consisted of the Resource map making followed by a group discussion.
The focus of the resource mapping was to learn the awareness level of the youth about the resources as they perceive it; and the discussion was more about sharing their personal experience with regards to tourism sector.

Action plan Visioning and Exposure trip

Subsequent meetings with the groups focused on development of group coherence and action plan visioning. Discussions revolved around the institution and skill development. The team proposed an exposure trip to Nepura the site of Endogenous Tourism Project (ETP).

In 2007, under ETP, a women’s Self Help Group was formed to revive the craft traditions of Sujuni stitch and Khatwa appliqué which were hitherto restricted to items made by individual women at household level. Under this project the Anchala women’s cooperative was formed and the women took it to new levels gusto and enthusiasm. Sewing machines were purchased from project funds; the women took an office on rent, organized themselves according to skill and experience and actively took up the craft, learning from one another. At first they started collecting and documenting traditional designs.

Since Nepura village is on the Buddhist circuit, with the help of NGO partner, the women started collecting depictions of Buddha’s life and stories as well as Buddhist motifs which were then transferred onto the cushion covers, wall hangings etc. These are becoming very popular among tourists as they make for attractive souvenirs.

Under the ETP project, the Anchala Women’s cooperative members have attended the following craft melas:

Toshali National Crafts Mela, Bhubaneswar (Feb ’08) where a total of 18 ETP sites participated

Incredible !ndia’s international event “India@60” in Singapore (Apr ’08) – a total of 4 ETP sites participated

Explore Rural India Craft Mela at Dilli Haat (Oct ’08) – where a total of 27 ETP sites participated

Incredible! India’s international event “India Calling@60” at Los Angeles, USA (Sep ’09)

This site also received the CNBC travel award of the year 2009 under the category 'Tourism site best demonstrating women’s empowerment'. Besides the prestigious awards and national and international exhibitions, the local as well as national media has showered much attention on their success; and there ‘dreams come true’ story has been covered by the ‘India Today’ magazine and national television ‘Doordarshan’ among others.

All the members of each newly formed groups visited Nepura. The new Groups had interaction with the members of “Anchala Mahila Swablambhi Sahkari Samiti”. The members of Nepura cooperative generously shared their experience with the visitors.
A meeting was held with the groups after their Nepura visit. We asked them what they learned and sought their feedback. The group members were very motivated and shared their learning; they were most impressed by the transparent system of record keeping at Nepura.

Post Exercise and follow up discussion

Post Exercise discussion
PRA exercises were followed by a long discussion. Participants wanted to know the outcome of exercise and how we are going to use the information. On being asked how they found the exercise, there was a mixed response, while few participants found it interesting many participants said they want to know how they will benefit from this exercise.

We shared with them the broader objective of the project; of linking the community to the growing tourism, the exercise was explained as the first step towards Bottom-Up approach. We explained them the difference between the Top-down and Bottom-up approach and how such exercises will help us in learning the awareness level and what the community thinks about the resources.
Community members were eager to share their views, and wanted to know more. Most of the participants said “we are illiterate, how can we benefit from tourism”. The meeting ended with a promise from both side to meet again to discuss,

I. How can we benefit from the heritage
II. Does tourism provides opportunity only to literates and educated

We thanked them for the hospitality, cooperation, active participation and anticipated such participation in follow-up meetings.

Follow up discussion
The team completed the “Resource map”, the first part of the PRA with all identified groups in the target villages. This was followed by the follow-up process with respective groups. The team was surprised to find more participants in the follow-up meetings. Team began the discussion from where we left last, “how we can benefit from tourism”.

The team shared the findings of the first exercise; on the basis of the resource map the team could infer that the women in the vicinity had very little or no direct livelihood link with the tourism. All the positive impact they mentioned reflected the indirect benefits. Few of the participants said “we are illiterate”, how we can benefit from tourism. Few women in the meeting said, “When we pass by the Nalanda remains we find that we can make some of those souvenirs too”. The participants shared more such items; few of them were trained in making children toys etc. Few women took initiative in mentioning other women from village who had such skills but were not the part of the discussion. Team was interested in knowing if they ever tried to market the products. We received a variety of answers, some said they never thought in those lines, a few said they want to market product but don’t know how to do that, some members felt the quality is not up to mark. In all participants were vocal about there thoughts shared what they felt.

Gradually the focus of the discussion was sifting towards finding suitable solution. It was felt by all the participants that a collective approach is required. Few members cited about programs that they watched on TV about Self Help Groups, few members mentioned about such Groups they have seen at other places.

We had few more such meetings and eventually everyone agreed to start a small group that shall work closely to build on available skills. The team and the participants discussed some rules so that group gradually gets more involved and disciplined.

Some basic rules were framed,

1- Team shall meet once a week at a predetermined place

2- Each member will contribute Rs,1 every week

3- Team leader will be decided on rotation basis

4- Proceedings of the meeting will be documented in a copy

The team could facilitate 5 small groups in 4 villages. In later months, few women took the lead and many more women joined the group. Though many women faced objections from their families, few women took lead and discussed matter with their families and tried to solve misunderstanding.

Concerns and Expectations of women

Women in villages around Nalanda remains are aware about the tourist destinations in the vicinity. This awareness has very little to do with the literacy. When asked, why they consider these places as tourist places they said that all identified places are part of their mobility zone. Many a place is either a worshiping place or are close to one which they frequent very often. Many places are visible from their rooftops and agriculture fields, which makes it possible for them to see big rush of vehicles to the places. Few of the groups mentioned about the recently opened Multi media centre as tourist destination. It was very unusual identification and when asked the basis of this, they said the place was previously used by them as rest house for the marriages. After the multi media centre was opened they could no longer use the facility, they were told that this place is now meant for tourists. Broadly, the places where women have seen lots of visitor and vehicles are tourist destinations to them.

Positive and Negative Impact
It was very significant to know that the people of the area take great pride in their heritage. Most of the women mentioned about the beauty and importance of the place. They proudly take their relatives and visitors to all the tourist attraction when they visit them. Most of them said it is their luck that they live close to such an important place which receives visitors from around the world. They feel very proud for the attention they receive at their maternal places, when people enquire about the place. Because of the heritage the place is well connected by rail and road. Electricity and other amenities are better than other villages they know.

Among the negative impacts, eve teasing was the most prominent, maximum groups complained about the incidents of eve teasing and chain snatching at Nalanda Remains and sun temple, Bargaon. They said the Liquor shop at the Kapatia turning is an important factor contributing to such nuisance. Another major grouse was the open defecation by the thousands of visitors during the Chath Pooja around sun temple. Beggary and traffic congestion at Jain temple and Nalanda remains was also mentioned by few participants.

Providing women with a platform to voice their thoughts

There was a mixed response among the women of different communities about the PRA; many families didn’t allow women from their families to participate in PRA. They said they have participated in many such discussion in past but eventually nothing happens. Another issue was identifying a suitable place for meeting, not everyone was willing to go to the house of other women. Some women preferred some common place like temple or school, etc for the meeting. Best part of all the villages was women from all the communities participated in the meeting. All the participants were eager to know what is going to happen in the meeting. We shared with them the objectives of the workshop and NNSG project.

Facilitation
Each meeting started with a brief introduction by all the participants including the facilitators, this was followed by sharing the objective of the meeting with participants. The community very inquisitive and anxious, we promoted discussion, answered their queries at the same time we made sure that we don’t raise their expectations. We then asked the participants to get arranged in small functional groups of 4 to 5 women in each group. Literacy level among the women’s in each group was very low. Each group could however manage to get at least one member who could prepare the map. Drawing sheets and Sketch pen were given to each group. The idea was to promote group activity, promote discussion among the members and reaching to some conclusion. The group activity was very participative except for a few participants everyone was contributing in the discussion and map making.

Summary of Resource Map

Resource mapping

Objectives

1. What community thinks are the tourism resources
2. What are the positive impacts of tourism
3. What are the negative impacts of tourism on their lives and surroundings

The resource mapping exercise was done with Women and Youth of Bargaon, Surajpur, Nirmal Bigha and Sarilchak.

Method- Discussions and group work

Materials- Drawing Sheets, Pens, markers, adhesive tape etc,

Time- 1 to 2 Hrs

Process-

1. Introduction & Orientation- The meeting commenced with introductions. The participants and the facilitating team introduced themselves. The team oriented on how to conduct the exercise, its purpose and importance.
2. Exercise- The participants were asked to organize into small groups of 4-5 members each. The teams were given a drawing sheet each and asked to develop a tourism resource map based on the discussion among the members.

• 1st Map- Participants were asked to make map of area showing all the places that they consider are the places of tourism interest
• 2nd Map- After the 1st map, the participants were asked to make a Map of places of tourism interest with benefits/ positive impacts associated with each of them
• 3rd Map- The participants were asked to make a map showing tourist places and the negative impacts of the places on their lives and surroundings

 3. After the map making exercise was complete the teams were asked to choose a leader from their group. The Group leader were asked to make a presentation on the group activities

Breaking the Ice - Starting a dialog with community

The work started with an informal chat with the village communities to gauge the interests before actually beginning the organized PRA. A visible commitment on the part of the project was necessary for a healthy participation and support from the community. The acceptable response of the community at such early stage might be biased or misleading as it might be based on the success or failure of any such previous experience.


In recent past land acquisition activity has taken place in villages around Xuanzang Memorial Museum, the land acquired are used for cultivation and owned by the farming community. The economy of village still revolves around agriculture and the farming community is on the top of the social ladder in the villages. The farming community is also having a strong influence on the opinion of the villagers. Land acquisition is a very sensitive issue in the villages. We initiated a few discussions with the community on this issue, in one such meeting at Surajpur we discussed the purpose of the land acquired and the benefits the area can reap from the upcoming infrastructure.
Most of the youth (from the farming community), who are studying in colleges welcomed the move and were eager to participate in tourism sector. Old People (Farming Community) had mixed feelings, some have experienced the direct and indirect benefits from the tourism infrastructure while others felt the benefits are usually delayed and very few people are actually benefited in the entire process.
Most apprehensive were the people who are directly involved with farming and depended completely on agriculture for making a living. These people were from various age groups and felt that they were not educated enough or lacked skills to participate in any such development. They further expressed they should be given employment in the upcoming infrastructure on priority basis. The land acquisition also impacts the established status hierarchy in the village. The status in the village is primarily associated with the land owned by the family and the second factor is number of people in the family employed with government or private firms (Doctors and Engineers in family). Land acquisition tends to skew the social status and the families where none of the kin are employed in government jobs think they will loose the social status. Status is generally associated with number of workmen they employ and harvest at their doorsteps at the end of harvest season.
People who have received compensation against the land acquired feel the amount paid as one time compensation is big (Sufficient), but they say the money will eventually be spent and this hot money is not the true replacement of the assured livelihood. There are people who have an alternative view to the same situation too, they have other source of income are generally happy as the cost of the left over land has sky rocketed and some of them have some business plans for future.
There are many such rumors floating in each of the village regarding some land acquiring drive. We had a similar experience at Sarilchak where the community said they have heard about the Nalanda Museum planning to acquire some lands in their village. A similar story was told at Bargaon, the community said they have very little land left and that Archaeological Survey of India plans to acquire most of their lands.


Certain PRA methods, however sensitively employed, may themselves be misconstrued and harm the rapport. Exercises like area mapping and transects etc can create more anxieties about the projects intentions. Since these actions may have some superficial resemblance to the behavior of professionals like land surveyors; and people can get quite alarmed. Since such data was not very essential in the first phase of community participation we decided to conduct such exercises once the community participation reaches to a certain level and sufficient trust is built.
In first half of the January, we informally met different men and women groups, decision makers and PRI members and shared with them what we plan to do with the communities in coming 5 to 6 months. We asked for suitable time and places where we can sit together for 2 to 3 hrs at stretch. The community people were inquisitive and enquired the purpose and objective of such long meetings. A consensus was reached regarding suitable places for the PRA meetings and suitable time for respective groups. Decision for place and time was important, often wrong identification of place and times leads to poor, limited and discontinuous participation and hence Information gaps. These informal meetings were also an opportunity to assess the limits of local knowledge and awareness, and the constraints to existing community systems of problem solving.

Suitable PRA Tools for our project

PRA tools suitable for the objectives of the NNMSG community participation project were identified, list of the tools and type of information to be elicited is as mentioned below,

Participatory Mapping
This method involves a diagram of the resources, facilities and infrastructure. It serves as a flowchart for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of village developmental activities. Diagrams summarize data in a way that helps in discussions, analysis and problem solving. This method was chosen to identify the community’s perspective of the tourism resources while exploring the possibilities and the improvement that would be required to develop that resource. In present context we used this tool for tourism resource map.

Semi structured interviews
This method of data collection through structured interviews is helpful for In-depth information. We had few predetermined checklist to initiate and facilitate the conversation, whilst the majority of the questions were formulated during the interview. This gave us valuable understanding about the community’s relationship and dependency on the tourism. Semi structured interviews were most relied and most valuable source of the PRA.

Time Line
This method engages the community in a discussion through a series of guided questions relevant to the objective of the PRA. This tool was largely instrumented to find the impact of seasonal, religious and time bound tourism. The information thus gathered gave an insight of tourist patterns and helped us generate a link with Nalanda Remains, Xuanzang, Sun Temple and other major events associated with tourism and how this affected their lives and the ambience of the place.

Group Discussion
This tool allows us to explore a range of concerns and interests. The process also raises awareness about the resources and communication thus brings forth any potential conflict, and provides a platform for consensus building. This tool was very effective in discussion with the vendors around the Remains. We also engaged the Tangawala (horse cart) in group discussion to build a consensus among the union members.

Objectives of the NNMSG PRA program

The objectives of the project largely determined the type of tools appropriate to collect the required information. Specific objectives for the PRA exercise were identified and are as listed below; and for each objective suitable PRA tools were selected.

Specific objectives

1. What community thinks are the tourism resources and there positive and negative impacts on their lives.
2. What is community’s idea for the livelihood opportunities from tourism
• Perception about the home-stay and meal at home for the visitors (domestic and foreigner)
• Possibilities for cultural experiences- what people think can make a good cultural experience- Traditional sports, performing arts, Local cuisine etc
3. Skill basket for Souvenirs- What are the skills and crafts available within the community and how can they contribute to increased livelihood options
4. Document of some of the important trends, recent changes and events related to tourism that took place and how they affected people in general.
5. Gender Analysis – For an effective implementation it is necessary to understand the gender roles and their implications. Inputs from such exercise will help in developing a stepwise plan for the building community institutions. Each society is a mix of different communities with varying value systems; role of women and active participation is different based community beliefs and it is necessary to mutually understand these perspectives. This will also help in designing the capacity building programs.
6. Master Plan of Nalanda- Stakeholder and focus groups to identify and prioritize their concerns and needs to develop a suitable Master-Plan of Nalanda
7. Institutions- what is community’s expectation of suitable institutions

PRA Design and introducing the Team

PRA Design for NNMSG
Appropriate PRA tools for NNMSG community participation project are identified from the "basket of techniques" offered by PRA. The central part of our PRA design is semi-structured interview. We plan to have interviews with individuals representing various sections of the society that would give them an opportunity to voice their concerns and needs and help us identify the sensitive issues. Other topics of more general concern are amenable to dialogue during focus group discussions and community meetings.

These interviews and discussions and several diagrammatic techniques shall be employed to actively involve the people and stimulate a constructive debate. The communication among various groups of people would increase awareness and they can better coordinate their decisions to be mutually beneficial. This dialogue and initial cooperation would be a great way to integrate the society based on common initiatives. The complete exercise spread in span of six months shall focus more on facilitating participation of the communities and to enable the local people to raise their concerns; not only as sources of information, but as partners with the PRA team in gathering and analyzing the information. The PRA exercise is designed to gather enough information to make necessary recommendations and informed decisions based on community tourism and yet it is very efficient with usage of time and money.



The Team
The PRA team constituted for the process consists of three facilitators including one female; two of the facilitators are from Bargaon village. Deepak Anand, the team leader has a done the PRA exercise at Nepura, the site of Endogenous Tourism Project (GOI-UNDP Project). Sailesh Pandey the second facilitator is a local inhabitant and has rich experience in community work as a volunteer. The third facilitator Pratima Kumari is student of NNM, from a local village and she is interested in working with the women group in future.

Why PRA- Appropriateness in the context

The NNMSG community participation project is for valuing the Knowledge and experience of the community. The pride that we feel in our heritage is more than just the physical assets; it is also our local culture, the art, the festivals and the fairs. And community needs to be involved so that the tangible and the intangible assets or our culture could be accounted for and further explored. One way of preserving our assets is making them more popular and sharing them with others while educating the population so that its sanctity could be maintained.

This Project aims to develop an experience for the visitors based on the combination of our archeological and traditional cultural heritage. Community needs to be involved in the initial stages as they would be the best judge for the needs of the fast changing rural landscape of the area; and it is the plan that they come up with and the strategy that they follow that would determine the ultimate success of the project. The sustainability of the solutions would lie with the effort and pride that the people feel in its ownership. This would includes collective decision making, better understanding about the resources the place is bequeathed with, identifying the needs of the society and revival of some old intangible resources; and most of all the process with which these resource can be a source of sustainable livelihoods. The ultimate goal of the project would be to empower the community institutions to be able to operate on their own and set an example for those who would like to follow in there steps. In the long run, it is about the community taking care of their tourism needs, making the visitors familiar with the assets and taking the pride and joy of ownership.

In essence public participation is extremely important to make this tourism project a success and PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) is one such approach which can be instrumental in facilitating community participation. PRA is essentially a set of tools and methodologies that can be appropriately applied at different stages of project and it is perfectly suited to meet the objectives of NNMSG community participation project.

There is a dire need to improve upon the existing infrastructure; with the increased number of tourists in the area, the facilities need to step up and come up to the expectations of the visitor. It is very urgent to make sure that the infrastructure is strong and with provisions to handle future growth. To be able to market ‘Nalanda’ as the new and upcoming tourist destination, the places need a new get up and new image while maintaining its earthy appeal.
The community can play a very important role in providing us the basic frame work by coming together and giving an insight into the growing needs of the area and possible solutions. This would also empower people and remove the threat that might be imposed up on them by policies, institutionalization or through the influx of outside parties with vested interests.


Nalanda with its archeological heritage has made it to the tentative list of the world heritage site and now we need to improve upon the infrastructure and come at par with the higher expectations of visitors. Under the world heritage site provisions, ‘Nalanda’ will have to comply with the norms and conditions of the UNESCO. And taking the first step towards improvement would give us the benefit of an early start and the process will most certainly help prevent exploitation of the heritage and increase the inflow of tourists. Better facilities will tend increase their stay in the area and would benefit the local economy which would then be in a position to reinvest in the system.
PRA process will bring the community together and start a dialogue towards a broader, long term goal for the area. Armed with these information and by involving public into the decision making process, a refined master plan for Nalanda can be developed.

As stated earlier, by empowering the people with the ability to make better decisions for their lives, they are protected against the exploitation that might come about from the parties with vested interest. And this improves the economic situation of the area and the ability of the local people to reinvest in the growing infrastructure needs. There can improvement in the tourists support services like shops, restaurants, hotels, hospitality and transportation, etc.
Based on the discoveries and interests of the visitors, new tourist circuit routes could be developed, rural tourism can add a new flavor to the experience, the awareness about the heritage could be spread and the glory of the ancient Nalanda can be resurrected.
A pioneer from centuries ago would develop with the outstanding potential and set a great example for others to follow. This is a great opportunity and a gateway to facilitate a new era of community managed tourism.

What is PRA (Participatory Rural appraisal)?

In 1992, Robert Chambers, one the most well-known proponents of PRA, described it as "a family of approaches and methods to enable rural people to share, enhance, and analyse their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan, and to act". With this process the people explore their own potential and feel empowered to bring about a change in the current situations by increased coordination and constructive partnerships. That in turn improves the long term sustainability of growth and revitalizes the economic activities.

PRA consists of group techniques like time lines, seasonal calendars, mapping, wealth ranking of households within the community, Venn diagrams of the community's institutional context; transect walks to observe the natural and built environment, and a variety of scoring and ranking techniques that facilitate effective community participation.

PRA has been used extensively to foster community participation in development projects around the world. It helps gathers and reflects on information about communities using approaches and methods that promote deep understanding and local empowerment. It is a tool equipped to enhance communication by building better relationship, increase involvement of people in their area’s future by making them more aware and including them in the decision making process. Such community participation improves the chances that the development projects will succeed by tailoring them to locally relevant situations. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) as the name implies is not limited to rural setting and for appraisal purposes only. This is a set of methodologies which are useful throughout the project cycle.

VISITOR ACTIVITY IN NALANDA OVER THE YEARS

If we see the data of international visitors coming to Nalanda we find an annual increase of more than 10% in the current decade. This is a good opportunity when we can plan some unique cultural experience for the tourists; such initiative will enrich the experience of the visitors and increase the qualitative and quantitative stay of the visitors as well. Such initiative shall flourish with the participation of the local communities, in the process benefiting the community and the visitors while conserving the heritage.

Total Visits -Domestic tourists


Total Visits- International Visitors


Monthly visit Profile- Year 2008

Domestic tourists


International Tourist


Location (Villages included for the PRA)


In the first phase of the project we plan to involve the community of Villages in the immediate vicinity of Nalanda. The Villages included for the PRA are,
1- Bargaon
2- Surajpur
3- Sarilchak
4- Nirmal Bigha


The main focus of the present initiative is to develop a wider tourist circuit involving villages with archleogical significance. Archaeological site Rukmanisthan which is part of Jagdishpur and Juafardih village has the Mound which was excavated by ASI in 2007. There are evidences suggesting Juafardih is the ancient Kulika and the stupa is possibly linked to Mahamogallan, one of the main disciples of Buddha. Both the sites are close to Nalanda and are potential tourist destinations.
The next step would be to develop a Tourism development committee involving the people of the villages for their effective participation and a role in the decision making process.

Background on Nalanda

Nalanda was a very rich culture and its remains are a heritage that needs to be cherished and explored further so that we can find pride in our roots and revive some of the lost culture. The ancient remains of Nalanda University that have been excavated so far are just 10 % of whole remains and these are surrounded by villages and most of these villages are on the unexcavated Mound. A large population has been living over these remnants for centuries and the more than 200 acres of the unexcavated mounds are private property. The Mound has dwellings or is used for agriculture purposes. Lots of irreversible damage has already been done to this heritage and it is still under constant threat.

We need to preserve this rich heritage and in the process we need to find ways that the community can get monetary benefits from the growing tourism in the area while preserving the heritage for future generations. Tourism is flourishing in this area and the community is in a very special position to benefit from it but there is a need to chart out a route so that the development is not at the cost of the damage to the heritage. Long term solutions for positive development of the community and the surroundings lies in the interdependency of the people who are living in this vast heritage and the people who cherish it and would like to visit it; all need to come together to conserve the heritage and save the experience for future generations

It is time to identify suitable ways to generate sustainable livelihoods from the growing tourism and make people, both the visitors and the keepers more aware about the delicate legacy that they are holding together to minimize the exploitation. There is a need for improving the physical and social infrastructure that will eventually facilitate more such initiative in other villages with archaeological heritage.
“Mapping of Nalanda” an ongoing project of Nava Nalanda Mahavihara; and it is an effort to build a detailed database of places of archaeological interest in and around Nalanda. This database will help in developing appropriate interpretations for sites with their references to the history, and thus the tourist base could be widened and more destination routes may be planned out and it can take tourists to more places that are currently not part of the main stream tourism.

Introduction to Nava Nalanda Mahavihar

Nava Nalanda Mahavihar is a Deemed University and a research Institute specialized in the field of Pali and Buddhism. It integrates and unfolds knowledge in threefold manner as per the Buddhist tradition namely: Pariyatti (Theoretical Knowledge), Patipatti (Practice) and Pativeda (Experience). While Nava Nalanda Mahavihara is the Place of Pariyatti, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara Sanskritik Gram (NNMSG) is conceptualized for Engaged Buddhism.


Buddhism besides being a popular religion also offers spiritual and philosophical teachings in a very secular way and its beliefs are invariably a way of life. Engaged Buddhism is where the principles of Buddha’s teachings are taken beyond the boundaries of a temple and used to coexist in harmony with other beings; loving kindness and compassion to all living. It is a contemporary approach that is actively involved with the social, economic, social and ecological problems of society. Its philosophical and ethical roots lie deeply within traditional Buddhist philosophy and values, which it applies it to contemporary problems.

Buddhism talks about how to be at home in the universe, right conduct of an individual in the society and responsibility of individuals towards the larger environment. It has references about Buddha preaching on right livelihood, the necessity to save money, and about benefiting from the natures abundance without exploiting it.

At NNMSG, we plan to involve community and design together sustainable livelihoods from the growing tourism. To encourage the awareness of public and letting them participate in an informed interaction and develop a coherent system that would entail privileges and obligations to maintaining the vast heritage of Nalanda while benefiting from it. The responsibility of conserving lies with the community and the tourists and there is a strong need for education about our resources and to put in place a directive to preserve what is discovered so far and for all that is still to be unearthed.

The project began with a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) in an effort to start a dialogue among people about the issues and provide them with the opportunity to participate in the decision process. It would imbibe the concern of all citizens at various relevant levels and enabled these communities to assess the situation.

It helps the communities to identify and explore the opportunities for the scope of improvement to make it a beneficial process for the people and the surroundings. This process will increase interaction and analysis of current problems and provide bases for sustainable solutions necessary to effect changes throughout the project implementation.

PRA is a useful method to gather baseline information to capture public opinion and fortify decision making. PRA was selected to facilitate early and genuine community involvement in the tourism project which could initiate large-scale changes in the Vicinity of Remains of ancient Nalanda University and could be used as a guideline for similar community owned tourism project at Nalanda and around. This PRA exercise was conducted in collaboration with Department of tourism (Government of Bihar).

Project Implementation

Participatory implementation and eventually the participatory management is not a spontaneous process; it is a conscious and informed activity. This will be achieved through involving community at every step of project activity. The process of continuous, active stakeholder involvement in the activities shall result in various benefits.

1. More community members shall be committed to carrying on the activity after the outside support has stopped.
2. This will help in develop skills and confidence.
3. A greater sense of ownership and agreement of the processes to achieve an objective
4. Shall help in evolving a more transparent and accountable system 

Based on the PRA, activities shall be identified. Each activity shall have a team that shall participate in the implementation work.

Reporting, Appraisal and Participatory evaluation

Based on the indicators identified by the community for the logframe matrix, a suitable activity reporting format shall be developed. This format shall become the basis of the yearly appraisal and participatory evaluation.

The basic purpose of reviewing and reporting shall be to improve implementation effectiveness by ensuring accountability for the funds allocated and by promoting the learning from the lessons by making necessary adjustment. A participatory Monitoring and evaluation (PME) suitable for each activity and for the project shall be designed.

In the upcoming posts we’ll discuss how these techniques were implemented, the response of the people and the final outcome of the PRA with its benefits contributing to the other development work going on in the area.

Creating Vision with Logic and Risk analysis

This technique will assist the community in developing a shared vision for the future in the activities. It involves asking the community group to assess where they are now and where they can realistically expect to be in future.

Within the activity the logframe helps to determine the roles to be played by different participants and provide an accurate schedule of actions that will need to be undertaken. The logframe for the various activities shall be developed with community participation and suitable objective shall be identified.

Risk analysis is a continuous activity done at the planning stage and at the key points of the activity cycle. There are three principal types of risk.

 

1. Risk arising from factors actually or potentially our control,
2. Risk that arise from factors in the wider policy and institutional environment, and which are controllable by decision makers elsewhere
3. Risk essentially uncontrollable—earthquake, political instability etc

Risk analysis is the process of identifying the risk assessing their individual and collective potential for causing damage, and defining the counter measures.

 

An elaborate risk analysis for each activity identified under the project shall be done.

 

Community Action Plan

Baseline Data thus collected shall be tabulated in a programmed excel sheet. The purpose of this baseline data is to review the progress and time to time evaluation of the activities under the project.

Problem & Situation analysis will help in identifying real as opposed to apparent development needs. In addition, it helps to bond programme participants together by identifying a variety of issues that may need to be dealt with, such as roles of different partners in resolving those issues, or the timescale and resources needed to achieve a given solution.

SWOT (Strength Weakness Opportunity Threats) Analysis helps converting the gathered information into a format that is easily by persons at all levels. This allows the community to see the picture at glance. For each opportunity available the SWOT analysis shall be done by the community. The results shall form the ladder for Problem tree analysis.

Entrepreneur window/ options for the Community based tourism

Stakeholder analysis at this stage of action plan would be help identify the stakeholders, their interest in the activity and also, to assess the influence and importance of each of these stakeholders in each of these activities.

Visitors’ survey

The purpose of the survey is to get first hand information of the visitors visiting this part of tourist circuit (Gaya, Nalanda and Pawapuri). Exercise will help us understand attitudes and perceptions of the visitors. Findings will facilitate the community’s understanding about what tourist expects and what resources are available with the community. Findings of the survey coupled with the findings of the PRA shall form the basis of future participatory planning activity to be carried under the project.

Approach
Survey approach shall be a Quantitative research.

Questionnaire

Economic impact- it measures the visitors spending/ potential spending generated by the activity.
Visitor Profile- A visitor’s profile is a description of the visitors based on demographical and behavioral characteristics.
Visitor perceptions- Understanding the perceptions the visitors and the potential visitors have of the place and the products shall assist the community in planning the tourism products.


Management
Survey shall be done by a team of students from the NavaNalanda Mahavihar. Team shall be oriented on the process of conducting survey.

Sampling
Domestic and international visitors at Bodh Gaya, Rajgir and Pawapuri shall be interviewed. A total of 300 tourists shall be interviewed.

Participatory Rural Appraisal — Breaking the ICE

PRA stands for Participatory Rural Appraisal and it means to participatively understanding a village. According to the terms the PRA represent group of approaches and methods that will encourage the community in actively participate in raising and analysing their knowledge of their life conditions in order to create the correct action plan. Here the external agencies acts as a facilitator and their primary function is to encourage, assist the community to carry out their own analysis, come to their own conclusion and design their own developmental programmes. In the present context PRA is being done to facilitate community participation in Tourism in and around the remains of ancient Nalanda University.

There are three types of PRA
1- Exploratory—Tools and Technique used to diagnose the current situation
2- Topical—application of PRA to some specific area of concern
3- Problem solving--- Diagnosis of problems and suggestions of solutions with participation of the community

Scope & objectives

The study and exercise shall be done in the villages around the remains of ancient Nalanda University. PRA tools shall be used to assess the community tourism needs so that specific interventions could be sought. Its purpose is to enable community to acquire sufficient creative and transforming leverage.
The exercise will create a platform for learning, the process is expected to enhance,
1- Identification of felt needs of the community
2- Bringing forth consensus
3- Integration of local knowledge into the project design
4- Community institutions who shall manage sustainable enterprise

Secondary sources
1. Census report for demographic details
2. Cadastral maps, aerial photographs and satellite images
3. Land records from district land record department

Target groups
1- Youth
2- Women
3- Elderly men
Composition of team

Professional experts in PRA and students from NavaNalanda Mahavihar, who are willing to work with the community, shall form the team that will conduct the exercise.

Composition of team

Professional experts in PRA and students from NavaNalanda Mahavihar, who are willing to work with the community, shall form the team that will conduct the exercise.

Baseline Database

Other Research project- Mapping of Nalanda

For lack of extensive exploration and excavation the entire rich heritage of this place is still a riddle for the rest of the world. Most of the literatures available to the tourists visiting Nalanda are just an estimate and supposition.


Exploration and excavation work in the area has taken place in parts without any continuity or link. No efforts have ever been made to obtain a bird’s eye view of events, sites and its significance.

Most of the exploration work was carried out by Cunningham and Broadlay and the excavation work followed those findings. The identification of important places associated with Lord Buddha and the ancient University could not be completed then for various reasons like,

1- limitation of scientific tools available at that time

2- Habitation (not very supportive) at the sites

3- High migration and repopulation of various sites, old names got corrupted. Hence leading to various interpretations.

Mapping of Nalanda is important in the present context because the work initiated by Cunningham and Broadlay is still half way. Identification of places associated with Sariputta, Mogllayan and Mahakashayapa are must, for Nalanda is also important to the world because it has given these important pillars of Buddhism. Interpretation of Ancient Nalanda University is incomplete without knowing its Gate, Library and its extension. What we have now is just 10 % of what has been mentioned.

The Mapping project is initiated to complete the unfinished task. This vicinity is full of Mounds and remains, all such places are under threat, and lots of damage has already been done by habitation, by removing earth and bricks. If nothing is done now for its preservation we will loose a part of heritage which was preserved for last many centuries. This project is also necessary because there is need to look beyond the popular sites around Nalanda. Most of the past studies have been concentrated around sites discussed by Cunningham and Broadlay. There are many site which are still not discussed or explored , all such sites in the radius of 16 km are important till all important discoveries are done. Many villages in the radius of 16Km have small or big mounds, scattered stone images and pottery. We are losing all such evidences very fast, this project shall help in documenting the present state of all such sites and shall take measures to protect and preserve such sites. The project will end with publications fulfilling objectives of the project.

Outcome

1- Discovering the places of significance shall make the interpretation more authentic

2- This will enrich the visitors experience and tourists will have more places to visit

3- A complete chronology of events, development of art and culture in and around Nalanda shall be established

4- A complete picture of art and culture of this area through periods could be documented. This will further help in establishing and promoting Nalanda Art through pottery and stone work.

5- Development of conjectural images of ancient sites through various periods.

NNSG- Available infrastructure & Facilities

A List of available infrastructure and resources available for community's help...

1- Facilities at NNSG

Open air theatre-- Sangayan

Artisan Haat

Artisan Stay and workshop-- shilpgram

2- Departments & Faculties of NNM

Ancient History

Language of Pali

Department of Tibetan Studies

Buddhist Philosophy

Participatory Approach

Participation of the key stakeholders in all stages of the project is essential for achieving long-term objectives of the project. The primary aim of the participative strategies is to make local people become active subjects of development efforts rather than be passive recipients. More specifically, the concept is related to the active involvement of the local people in the choice, execution, and the evaluation of the projects and programmes designed to raise their living standards.
The use of Participatory approaches ensures that interventions are better targeted; they are more appropriate to people’s need, and can be more effective, efficient and have better impacts. This allows the community to identify opportunities as well as problems, making use of local knowledge and skills to mobilize local resources and support. Involving the community in all stages of the project activities makes the community more committed, responsible and eventually generates sense of ownership for the concept.


Overall Participatory Approach of the project

Objective of the NNSG Project

Since the mid 80’s, interest in community tourism has grown rapidly among the policy makers, practitioners and advocates. This focuses on the need to ensure that tourism does not erode the environmental and cultural base on which it thrives. Community based tourism provides an opportunity for decentralizing the provisions of services from tourism, as well as generating income and avenues for rural development through local employment.
While tourism represents an important development opportunity for communities, it can also have negative impacts like harming social-cultural authenticity of host communities and threatening the fragile heritage. Wise planning and management of tourism development is the key to keeping it a force for good. In the present context the NNSG plans to conduct a detailed Participatory Rural Appraisal. PRA shall be the basis of the future participation and hence the conceptualization of sustainable livelihood from tourism.


Objectives

I. Institution (government)–Community Collaboration- To conceptualize a collaboration between the community based institutions and the Nava Nalanda Sanskritik Gram
II. Showcasing Art, craft, and culture of Nalanda- Identification, Development and Promotion of tangible and intangible heritage of Nalanda.
III. Community Benefiting from tourism- Conceptualizing community based institutions around sustainable tourism products
IV. Enriching the experience of visitors- Opportunities for exchange of knowledge and culture between tourists and the community

Engaged Buddhism

NavaNalanda Mahavihar was founded to promote and preserve Buddhist literature, with more emphasis on the Pali literature, the very language in which the Lord Buddha preached. Since its inception, NNM is actively involved in promoting the philosophy of
• Pariyatti – Learning --The theoretical understanding
• Patipatti- Understanding--The experiential understanding
• Pativeda- The practice—Experiencing the result

NNSG is the Paripatti arm and a platform for Pativeda of NNM, the Place for Pariyatti.

NNSG plans to conceptualize and develop,

1- An institutional setup for participation and capacity building of the stakeholders for community based tourism
2- The identification, development, testing and standardization of Community based tourism products
3- Modules for awareness generation among the community on preservation of the tangible and intangible heritage of Nalanda.

Background

Tourism industry in the Buddhist circuit is expanding rapidly and is in a very strong position to benefit the local communities, socially and economically, and to raise awareness and support for the conservation of the tangible and intangible heritage that Nalanda is bequeathed with.
Ancient ruins of Nalanda are spread in more than 200 acres of land and most of this lies outside the protected zone. There are more than 3000 households and 20,000 people living on the unexcavated Mound of ancient Nalanda University. Apart from remains of ancient Nalanda University there are many villages in the vicinity where one can find ancient remains. These scattered heritages are the basis of the present tourism and are the potential destinations were tourism could be explored eventually. The role of the community is very crucial for long term conservation of this heritage. In order to develop community based tourism products that the community considers most suitable, we need to give the community the opportunity to discuss and analyse opportunities and constraints.

Inspite of increased flow of the Visitors some issues are very apparent and needs attention,

• Length of the average stay of tourists is still about 1 hour at Nalanda Ruins and about a half day at Rajgir.
• Lack of standard and authentic interpretation material and tools
• Facilities for visitors
• Community interaction with the tourism is very limited and is stagnant for many years
• Community ownership for the place is not visible in the ambience

The present setup of tourism in and around Nalanda has very little for the community to participate directly and benefit from it. “NavaNalanda Sanskritik Gram” is conceived to promote the grassroots philosophy of maximum people’s participation, sustainability and its role as a facilitator whereby local people are involved in all aspects of conservation and developmental processes both as principal actors and prime beneficiaries from the growing tourism sector. This community based tourism initiative has been conceived to promote and preserve of rich cultural heritage of Nalanda. This heritage is the foundation of vibrant tourism and can provide sustainable livelihoods to the community.

Making of the 'Master Plan'

The process of getting the community together on one platform so that they get an opportunity to voice their concerns, iron out their differences and come up with a plan that is acceptable to all and is for the betterment of the society is very tedious. It is more than just an informal talk and in fact it needs a lot of tact when it comes to providing opportunities to the weaker section of society.

These series of posts would be an effort to share with you the steps and some of the hoops that we had to tread across while developing the ‘Master Plan’ of Nalanda.

1- Nava Nalanda Sanskritik Gram tourism project

• Background
• Engaged Buddhism
• Aims and Objectives
• Broad objectives of the project
• Participatory approach
• Available infrastructure
• Other research project by NavaNalanda Mahavihar- Mapping of Nalanda

2- PRA (Participatory Rural Approach) -Breaking the ICE

• Visitor’s Survey
• Data analysis
• Community action planning-Flowchart
• Baseline database
• Problem and situation analysis
• Visioning
• Logical framework analysis
• Risk analysis
• Project implementation
• Reporting and participatory evaluation

3- Time line for the activities for 2009-10