Six Hindu temples nominated for World Heritage List

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

(Photo : Logo of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee)

Six Hindu temples in Indonesia, Thailand and Nepal have been nominated to be certified as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Sukuh Hindu Temple and Penataran Hindu Temple Complex in Indonesia, Temples of Phanomroong and Muangtam in Thailand, and Rishikesh Complex of Ruru Kshetra and Ram Janaki Temple in Nepal are currently on the "Tentative List" of UNESCO World Heritage Convention nominated by their respective countries waiting to be inscribed on World Heritage List.

Currently, the World Heritage List is made up of 911 properties "having outstanding universal value", which includes only three Hindu temples: Hampi and Pattadakal temples in Karnataka (India) and Prambanan Temples in Indonesia.

Well known Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, urged the Convention to include more Hindu temple complexes in the World Heritage List as many of those were a wonderful example of exceptional architecture and design, represented a rich and unique civilization and culture, and were of outstanding universal significance.

Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also asked India, Nepal, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and other countries to nominate more Hindu temples for inclusion, as many of those were highly suitable for inscription on World Heritage List.

Mai Bint Muhammad Al Khalifa of Bahrain is the Chairperson of Bureau of the World Heritage Committee, while Ould Sidi Ali of Mali is the Rapporteur. The 21 States Parties of the current Committee are: Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Iraq, Jordan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and United Arab Emirates. World Heritage Centre is headquartered in Paris (France) with Francesco Bandarin as Director and Kishore Rao as Deputy Director.