![]() Overview of Smriti Park Stupa The site for construction of the Smriti Park Stupa is on the historical Bankipur Central Jail of British era. The park is the brainchild of Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar and was inaugurated by the Tibetan spiritual leader, Dalai Lama, who planted 2 saplings out of which 1 was brought from Bodh Gaya, where Lord Buddha is said to have gained enlightenment, and the other from Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. The Smriti Park Stupa was constructed to commemorate the 2554th birth anniversary of Lord Buddha. The Patliputra Karuna Stupa is the main focal point and is an attraction for tourists as it houses holy relics from Japan, Myanmar, South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Tibet. There are ambulatory paths around the stupa at three different levels that lead to the highest level of the building. The Smriti Park Stupa symbolically represents the dispersion of Buddhism from Bihar to various regions of the world and has a seating capacity of around 5000 people. Besides the stupa, the park has a meditation centre, library, an open park and a museum. The meditation centre in the park consists of 60 cells having a view of the stupa. The library houses books on Buddhism along with a large Audio-Visual Hall. The Hall has been designed to be used by the groups visiting the park. The park is called Smriti Bagh or the Park of Memories and is a landscaped open space which has stupas from countries across the world, each designed in the architectural pattern representative of the specific country. Visiting Information on Smriti Park Stupa The nearest railway station to the Smriti Park Stupa is the Patna railway station at a mere distance of 2.5 km and the Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport is at a distance of 6.3 km from the park. |