By Our Reporter
The proposal to include Tilaurakot in the UNESCO World Heritage List made no headway in the 47th session of UNESCO, held in Paris, France.
It was reported that the proposal, which faced no amendment proposal, was denied only because India stood against the proposal.
As India has developed fake Tilaurakot elsewhere, it did not want Tilaurakot’s entry in the World Heritage List. Even India, until a few years ago, was claiming that Lumbini was in Odisha. But after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly announced Nepal as the country of the Buddha, the dispute was solved forever. But now, India has reportedly managed to foil Nepal’s attempts to include Tilaurakot in the World Heritage List.
Nepal’s decade-long campaign failed after UNESCO’s technical advisor, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), recommended deferring the nomination of Tilaurakot, meaning they did not endorse its inscription during this session.
During the ongoing 47th UNESCO session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris, discussions regarding Tilaurakot’s inclusion in the World Heritage List took place for over two days, on Friday and Saturday, but the site was not listed.
A delegation comprising Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation Badri Prasad Pandey, Vice Chairman of the Lumbini Development Trust Dr. Lharkyal Lama, Senior Director Gyanin Rai, and Sandip Khanal, Chief of the World Heritage Preservation Division at the Department of Archaeology, travelled to Paris to participate in discussions supporting Tilaurakot’s nomination.
Sanuraja Shakya, Member Secretary of the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), reportedly claimed that the proposal was rejected because of Indian pressure not to include it in the List.
Tilaurakot was included on UNESCO’s tentative list of World Heritage Sites in 1996.
Meanwhile, Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, has been removed from UNESCO’s list of potentially endangered heritage sites.
The 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided not to include Lumbini on the endangered list for the coming year, acknowledging that active conservation and improvement efforts are ongoing in the area.
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