Maitreya Project
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The Maitreya Project is an undertaking by a Tibetan Buddhist organisation, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) to build a 152 meter statue of the Maitreya Buddha in India. Originally planned to be built in Bodhgaya, the site will be now be Kushinagar.
The statue is aimed to have a one thousand year life-span and, according to the project's spiritual director Lama Zopa, is intended to 'benefit as many people as possible for as long as possible'. Besides the statue itself, a huge collection of Buddhist artwork is planned to fill the statue. Of the US$250 million total budget for the project, an estimated US$35 million is planned for education and healthcare programmes.
Responding to controversy over spending so much money on a bronze statue in one of the poorest parts of the world, the organisers have claimed that the creation of many permanent jobs in the tourist industry will likely prove to be at least as big an economic benefit on the long term. Critics have claimed that the type of 'development' following the construction of a tourist attraction such as this will benefit only a few businessmen coming from other areas, and marginalise most of the local population, who are extremely poor. Some also fear that it will harm peoples' perception of Buddhism, making it appear to be a materialistic religion.
