UNESCO APPRECIATES INDIA’S EFFORTS FOR PRESERVATION OF HERITAGE

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Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura has lauded India’s efforts for preservation of cultural heritage and expressed satisfaction over the recent initiatives taken to protect the environment of Taj. UNESCO, DG called on Shri Jagmohan, Minister for Tourism and Culture here today to personally congratulate on declaration the oral tradition of vedic chanting as intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO recently. He said among the 80 entries received from world over the chanting of vedas was considered an outstanding example of heritage and the form of cultural expressions

Mr. Koichiro Matsuura added that the UNESCO declaration would bring international recognition to the excellence of the vedic chanting tradition of India, which has survived for c-enturies encoding the wisdom contained in the Vedas through an extraordinary effort of memorisation and through an elaborately worked out mnemonic methods. The purity and fail-safe technique devised for Vedic chanting in the olden days led to access to one of the ancient literatures of humanity in its entirety.

On the occasion, Shri Jagmohan apprised the DG, UNESCO of recent initiatives by Indian Government to protect cultural heritage including setting up of national mission for conservation of intangible heritage and monuments. The Minister suggested that the UNESCO should remove restriction of recognition of only one heritage site in a year as India is a vast country having thousands years heritage. More than one heritage sites could be considered in a year for world heritage recognition by UNESCO, he added.