Chairman NMA Tarun Vijay in Kashmir on a special “Monument Awareness Mission”
Chairman NMA Tarun Vijay in Kashmir on a special “Monument Awareness Mission”
Kashmir has several ancient World Heritage Sites- will work on them-Tarun Vijay
Despite injured and on wheel chair, he tours ancient sites including Parihaspora, Martand and Rainawari’s Vital Bhairav
New Delhi-25th Nov-(PTK) : Responding to the call of duty, and inpisred by PM Modi’s vision to save heritage , while correcting historical wrongs done by prejudiced historians, the Chairman of the National Monuments Authority Shri Tarun Vijay is visiting significant monuments of Kashmir to commemorate World Heritage Week . He will prepare a report on the resurrection of some of the major andestroyed Hindu temples and Buddhist monuments and create awareness to preserve heritage.
Derspite of being injured in an accident and on wheel chair, Mr tarun Vijay responded to the call of duty and insisted to complete his pre scheduled topur. Sr ASI state officers Mr Hashmi and mr Mustafa Ahmad, Director state ASI were surprised and hugely apprecieted his deication. they are accompanying hom on his site tours.
Mr Tarun Vijay said that it is sad that inspite of havinbg several grand world heritage sites like Martand, Parihas Pora and Harwan, Kashmir hasnt bothered to work on any one of them to be declared as Unesco World Heritage site. In fact Parihaspora, th=e ancient capital of Emperor Lalitaditya alone is a gem of all World heritage sites existing in india , which has World’s largest Stone Stupa , found no where else either in india or abroad .
He said that top on his list is the renovation and resurrection of Vittal Bhairav temple in Rainawari, down town Srinagar which is more than a thoiusand year old and was destroyed by terrorists . Even today , on the garts of this historic temple anti national slogans – Go Back India are wriiten.
There are 56 important monuments that are declared as national monuments of Importance and 57 monuments are state protected. Many of the monuments are in a dilapidated condition on the verge of destruction . O fhte 56 national monuments 43 are in Kashmir and 15 in Jammu region.Several monuments of great importance are yet to be included in the list of national monuments. Monuments that define the real sould and spirit of Jammu and Kashmir like Martand temple, Pandrethan temple, Zorawar fort Reasi , Harwan, ( where the great monk Kumarajiva’s journey to teach China tenets of higher Buddhism began) need special attention and a strong peoples’ movement to preserve them.
Hre will also explore possibilities to have the grand Martand Temple restored to its pristine glory.
Shri Tarun Vijay said that it is due to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s great interest to preserve heritage and Lt Gov Manoj Sinha’s initiatives we are seeing many projects are undertaken to preserve hitherto ignored heritage sites. Governor Manoj Sinha has ordered Zorawar fort Reasi’s preservation and first time in history Gurudwara of Baba Banda singh Bahadur Reasi is helped with a Banda singh Ghat on Chenab and a state of the art museum on the invincible warrior is being envisaged. : –PTK
