LUMBINI, Feb 1: The final nomination document for including Tilaurakot, Kapilvastu in the list of World Heritage Sites has been presented to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre on behalf of the Government of Nepal. Tilaurakot is the capital of the ancient Shakya republic.

Ambassador of Nepal to France and Nepal's Permanent Representative to UNESCO, Sudheer Bhattarai, formally handed the nomination document to Lazare Eloundou Assomo.

Member-Secretary of the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), Sanuraja Shakya, in a press statement on Thursday said that the presentation of the strategic nomination document prepared by national and international experts to the central office of World Heritage Centre at Paris, France is a matter of immense pleasure. 

"It is a matter of happiness not only for us but also for all the heritage lovers that the works carried out since long by a team of professors from Durham University as experts, together with the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, the Lumbini Development Trust and the Department of Archaeology, have materialized," reads the press release.

Member-Secretary Shakya said that the positive support and cooperation of all is expected as a necessary process along with the preparation has been initiated from the side of the LDT for having Tilaurakot enlisted in the World Heritage Sites list until 2025.

A team of archaeologists led by Prof Robin Cunningham of Durham University had, through the scientific archaeological excavations carried out since 2014 under the UNESCO Japanese Fund in Trust Project, prepared the basis and collected adequate evidence for enlisting Tilaurakot in the list of World Heritage Sites.

A directive committee was also formed for ensuring from the governmental and stakeholder bodies the means and resources required for enlisting Tilaurakot Kapilvastu in the list of World Heritage Sites and for facilitating and giving directives in this connection. 

The Vice Chair of LDT is the coordinator of the directive committee.

The government in the policy, programme and budget of fiscal year 2078/79 BS had included the issue of enlisting Tilaurakot in the list of World Heritage Sites.

A promotional programme related to Tilaurakot Kapilvastu was organized at the 45th meeting of the World Heritage Committee.  

With the submission of the final nomination document officially at the central office of the World Heritage Centre, the process has formally moved ahead for the registration of Tilaurakot at the World Heritage Centre.

The press release reads that national and international experts had incorporated required evidence and bases in the strategic document to enlist Tilaurakot Palace, where Siddhartha Gautam spent 29 years, in the World Heritage Sites.

UNESCO in 1996 had put the archeological site, Tilaurakot, in the list of possible world heritage sites.

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