BUTWAL: A proposal to include the ancient Tilaurakot Palace of the Shakya Republic in the UNESCO World Heritage List is being presented at the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris, France.
The proposal seeks to list the Tilaurakot Palace area, which is believed to be a part of the ancient Kapilvastu kingdom where Gautam Buddha spent 29 years of his life, as a World Heritage site.
A high-level Nepali delegation, including Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Badri Prasad Pandey and Vice-chairperson of the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), Dr Lharkyal Lama, is in France to participate in the session.
Dr Lama reached Paris on Friday itself to prepare for the meeting that began on Sunday, while Minister Pandey and others left for Paris on Monday. On the eve of the session, Dr Lama appealed for international support for Nepal’s proposal to recognize Tilaurakot as a World Heritage site.
Nepal’s Ambassador to France, Sudhir Bhattarai, Indian Ambassador to France, Vishal Sharma, Head of UNESCO’s South Asia World Heritage Division, Himal Chuli Gurung, and ICOMOS Director Gwenaelle Bourdin have been making diplomatic efforts to support the proposal.
Tilaurakot’s final nomination for the World Heritage listing was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee last year. Following this, evaluation missions, including one from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), studied the site and recommended the proposal for listing.
Under the UNESCO Japanese Fund-in-Trust project, scientific archaeological excavations have been conducted at Tilaurakot since 2014 under the leadership of Professor Robin Coningham from Durham University. The excavation gathered substantial evidence and justification for Tilaurakot’s inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage site. inclusion.
The ministry, LDT and Department of Archaeology have held multiple rounds of consultations with international heritage experts directly at the Tilaurakot site.
Prominent experts involved in preparing the final nomination dossier include international heritage specialists such as Dr Duncan Marshall, Prof Dr Robin Coningham (UK); Kai Wei Jie, Prof Yokio Nishimura, Prof Max Deeg, Dr Mark Manuel, former Director General of the Department of Archaeology Kosh Prasad Acharya, Prof Dr Rajesh Rai, Dr Inu Pradhan, Sristina Shrestha, Department of Archaeology spokesperson Ram Bahadur Gurung, LDT Director Gyanin Rai.
The government included the listing of Tilaurakot in the World Heritage List as part of its policy and program for the fiscal year 2021/22. UNESCO placed Tilaurakot on its tentative World Heritage List in 1996.
The 47th session of the World Heritage Committee will continue until July 16.
