Saantinketan the home of Nobel laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore has been recommended for inclusion in UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
The quaint town in West Bengal’s Birbhum district is also home to the Visva-Bharti University built by Tagore nearly a century ago.
The recommendation was made by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which is the advisory body to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, based on a file moved by the Indian government.
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ICOMOS, a France-based International culture body, comprises of professionals, experts, representatives from local authorities, companies and heritage organizations. It is dedicated to the conservation and enhancement of global architectural and landscape heritage.
“Great news for India on the jayanti of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Santiniketan in West Bengal has been recommended for inscription to the World Heritage List by ICOMOS, the advisory body to UNESCO World Heritage Centre,” Union Minister for Culture G Kishen Reddy said in a tweet.
May 9 was Tagore’s 162nd birth anniversary.
The nomination would be formally announced at the World Heritage Committee meeting to be held at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in September 2023, Mr Reddy further said.
To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria mentioned in the UNESCO list.
Santiniketan, if selected would be the second cultural symbol from West Bengal, to make it to the UNESCO list. In 2021, UNESCO had included ‘Durga Puja in Kolkata’ in its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
