Shantiniketan India`s official entry for World Heritage Site

New Delhi, Apr 18 (PTI) Shantiniketan -- the abode of
Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore -- can well be the
country's next World Heritage Site if India's proposal in this
regard is accepted by the UNESCO.
Shantiniketan, which houses the world-famous Visva
Bharati university and attracts thousands of tourists from
across the globe every year, is India's 2010 official entry
for UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.
If the nomination is accepted, it will become India's
30th world heritage site and West Bengal's third after
Darjeeling mountain railways and Sundarbans National Park.
Archaeological Survey of India, the agency responsible
for conservation and protection of monuments and nodal
authority for making nominations to UNESCO, has sent the
dossier to the UN agency in Paris.
"We have sent a dossier to UNESCO nominating
Shantiniketan as this year's official entry for World Heritage
Sites. An acknowledgement has been received from UNESCO," B R
Mani, ASI's Deputy Director General, said.
"The nomination will be discussed by the World Heritage
Committee. They will then take a decision in this regard," he
told PTI.
He said the entire procedure takes a maximum of 18
months. The sprawling 150-acre campus may be initially added
to the temporary list of the Heritage sites as part of the
procedure to be declared as a World Heritage site.
Shantiniketan's nomination comes as the country gears
up to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore, who
penned India's national anthem.
Mani said this factor was taken into account before
Shantiniketan was nominated as the country's official entry.
"We certainly looked into the 150th anniversary
celebrations factor before making the nomination. And moreover
Shantiniketan is a world famous site and it attracts people
from across the globe," he said.
Shantiniketan was earlier called Bhubandanga (named after
Bhuban Dakat, a local dacoit), and was owned by the Tagore
family. In 1862, Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, Rabindranath's
father, gave the name Shantiniketan (abode of peace).
In 1901, Tagore started a school at Shantiniketan named
Brahmachary Ashram modelled on the lines of the ancient
gurukul system. After he received the Nobel Prize, the varsity
was renamed Visva Bharati.
Visva Bharati, now more than a hundred years old, is one
of the most prestigious universities of India with degree
courses in humanities, social science, science, fine arts,
music, performing arts, education, agricultural science and
rural reconstruction. PTI