Heritage Tourism

Tourists keen to see the unseen and know the unknown scarcely bother about the conceptualization of their venture of love . But still new ideas and concepts rule industries on

the look out for diversification and the crucial sector of tourism is no exception. Heritage tourism , a relatively new coinage as idea, means guiding tourists through the alleys and memory lanes of history in the course of travels . With its rich historical past and tradition of composite culture Tripura is a paradise for heritage tourism and tourists partake of the sheer delight of being in places of history that once lay buried.

That the state had vibrant and glorious past is attested by history including ‘Rajmala’, court chronicle of Tripura’s princely rulers of the Manikya dynasty. A king of Tripura had attended the royal ‘Rajsua’ sacrifice of Yudhishthira , the fabled Pandava king of Mahabharatha.

The rulers of Tripura’s lunar Manikya dynasty tried to build up a composite culture in an atmosphere of peace and amity and the archaeological remains unearthed across the state bear testimony to their noble ventures.

Thus we have Pilak archaeological site in Belonia subdivision of south Tripura where a Hindu-Buddhist culture flourished in peaceful co-existence with each other from the 8th century AD. The delicate works of sculpture on the Devtamura hill range of Amarpur subdivision of south Tripura speak from silence of a rich and glorious past of the state .

The five hundred yearold ‘Mata Tripureshwari’ temple built in 1501 by king Dhanya Manikya (1490-1520) and the remains of the erstwhile royal palace on the bank of the river Gomati in Udaipur, headquarter of south Tripura district, attract tourists no less. Likewise , ‘Neermahal’, the famous lake-palace amidst the sprawling Rudra Sagar lake in Sonamura subdivision and the ‘Ujjayanta Palace’ , abode of former princely rulers in the heart of Agartala epitomize Tripura’s glorious historical past .

Tucked away in a corner of the Kailasahar subdivision of north Tripura , stands in towering glory the grand sculptural works on the Unakoti hills. The delicate carving of the images of deities on the surface of the Unakoti hills is next only to Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu in size and grandeur as a Saivite site . Heritage tourism in Tripura holds a lot in store for tourists keen to delve in the past for troves of treasure.