As Ramappa Temple gets coveted tag, village hopes for change in fortune

Newly-anointed World Heritage Site is drawing tourists in hordes

A mini-bus with an Andhra Pradesh number plate is stopped just outside the Ramappa Temple by the police for a check, and a dusty car with a Karnataka number plate zips to the parking lot. A day earlier, about a dozen young girls and women from Kakinada arrived on a hired bus to see the World Heritage Site. Inside the Ramappa temple, men and women gawk around in astonishment, touch the smooth stone sculptures, pray intently and speak in dozen different languages. Outside the disused eastern entrance, a family has brought in a tractor and the priest struggles to crack open the ash gourd to complete the puja. On the surface, nothing has changed. But the small village of Palampet is abuzz with the conversation of UNESCO World Heritage Tag. Crews of journalists have stationed themselves in the village and have spoken to the farmer, the priest, the grizzly-old peanut seller at the western entrance, and any other person willing to talk.