Karumadi Kuttan is a renowned pilgrim centre in the village of Karumadi, near Ambalappuzha town in the district of Alappuzha. At the site, facing the Punnamada Lake stands Karumadi Kuttan (the little black boy or the boy from Karumadi), a three-feet tall, black granite statue of Lord Buddha. It serves as a silent testament to Kerala’s Buddhist heritage. The site is now under the protection of Kerala’s Department of Archaeology. 

The Statue
The statue of Karumadi Kuttan is believed to have been built between 9th and 14th century AD. It lay abandoned for centuries in a nearby stream called Karumady thodu until Sir Robert Bristow, a British engineer discovered it in the 1930s and built a shrine to preserve it. The left side of the statue is broken, which has sparked debates about its partial destruction. Some say it was destroyed by a Mughal emperor to curb the spread of Buddhism in Kerala at that time. Another lore among the locals is that the statue was broken by an angry elephant. The statue is protected by a pagoda, believed to have been built by the Dalai Lama during his visit to Karumadi in 1965.

Kerala’s only Buddhist pilgrimage site
Karumadi Kuttan is the sole Buddhist pilgrimage site in Kerala. It is believed that it was at Karumadi, known as Sreemoola Vasam earlier that the Buddhist monks propagated Buddhism. The shrine, believed to offer miraculous healing, attracts pilgrims from all over India and around the world. Every year, the Kerala Buddhist Council celebrates Buddha Purnima at Karumadi. More than a thousand devotees take part in this event.

Though Alappuzha has famous monuments and shrines, it is its charming backwaters that make the district special; hence the name ‘Venice of the East’. You can take boats to and from Karumadi Kuttan on the Punnamada Lake, which has a boat dock with houseboats, canoes, motor boats and Kashmiri boats called ‘Shikaras’.