Dhenkanal: Heritage lovers under the aegis of Dhenkanal Heritage Walks (DHW) on Sunday explored the lesser known living Buddhist village – Sarakpatna – in Bhapur block of Dhenkanal district. Situated along the Sapua river, the village is still practicing Buddist as a way of life even after centuries.
Approximately 15 km from the district headquarters, Sarakpatna is inhabited predominantly by the ‘Tantubaya’ or ‘Rangani’ weaving community. Almost every household contains one or more looms, actively operated by both older and younger members of the family, indicating inter-generational transmission of technical knowledge without institutional mediation or patronage from the local administration.
What distinguishes Sarakpatna further is its religious composition as nearly 98 percent of the village population continues to practice Buddha’s way of like. This makes Sarakpatna an exceptional example within Odisha, where Buddhism largely declined as a community religion after the early medieval period. The village’s social life—from dietary practices and ritual observances to birth and death ceremonies—is structured according to Buddhist ethical principles.
“Though Buddhism has largely been a way of life in some parts of India and largely South East Asia, its deep roots in once predominantly followed region like ancient Kalinga or Utkala might fascinate us in the historic texts, but in real life encountering the living traditions often overwhelm us as we know, Kalinga was once the transit point for the spread of Buddhism to offshore destinations following the great massacre during Kalinga War”, said a research scholar.
A centrally located Buddhist temple, housing a stone image of the Buddha, functions as a religious and communal anchor. The annual observance of “Buddha Jayanti” on “Baisakh Purnima” remains the most significant collective event in the village.
The village name itself offers historical insight. Sarakpatna is believed to derive from ‘Sarak’, commonly interpreted as a “linguistic corruption” of ‘Shravaka’, denoting a Buddhist disciple or “hearer” of the Buddha’s teachings. Existing literature on ‘Sarak’ communities across eastern India identifies them as descendants of ancient Buddhist populations, who preserved vegetarianism and ethical codes long after Buddhism’s institutional decline elsewhere. Sarakpatna appears to represent a localized continuity of this tradition.
Though historical documentation explaining the village’s conversion to Buddhism is presently unavailable, oral histories maintained by village elders referred to trans-regional connections within Buddhist networks. Buddhist monks from regions such as China, Japan, Tibet, and Sri Lanka had visited the village, said a historian and indicated that there was possible integration of Sarakpatna into wider circulations of Buddhist learning and pilgrimage.
DHW convener Suresh Prasad Mishara said the initiative enabled participants to have direct engagement with more than 50 weaving households. Interactions focused on weaving techniques, economic sustainability, and the relationship between religious ethics and occupational life. Participation by researchers, retired administrators, heritage practitioners, and college students underscored the growing recognition of Sarakpatna not as a cultural relic, but as a functioning socio-cultural system, he said.
Sarakpatna challenges dominant heritage paradigms by demonstrating that cultural survival does not always depend on visibility or state recognition. Instead, it underscores how belief systems, occupational continuity, and collective memory can sustain civilizational legacies in ordinary, uncelebrated spaces. As such, Sarakpatna warrants scholarly attention not merely as a unique Buddhist village, but as a critical site for rethinking heritage as lived, practiced, and ethically grounded, he added.