Ramappa temple gets World Heritage tag:

 About Ramappa temple:

• Built by Racherla Senapati Rudrayya, a general of Kakatiya king Ganapatideva, in the 13th century.
• The foundation is built with the “sandbox technique”, the flooring is granite and the pillars are basalt.
• The lower part of the temple is red sandstone while the white gopuram is built with light bricks that reportedly float on water.

What is sandbox technique?

The technique involves filling the pit — dug up for laying foundation — with a mixture of sand lime, jaggery (for binding) and karakkaya (black myrobalan fruit), before the buildings were constructed on these ‘sandboxes’.

• The sandbox in the foundation acts as a cushion in case of earthquakes.

 

World Heritage Committee:

The World Heritage Committee meets once a year, and consists of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention elected for terms up to six years.

• The Committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, allocates financial assistance from the World Heritage Fund and has the final say on whether a site is inscribed on the World Heritage List.
• It examines reports on the state of conservation of inscribed sites and decides on the inscription or removal of sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

 

How is a world heritage site protected?

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.

This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.

 

Nomination process:

1. A country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites into a document known as the Tentative List.
2. Next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File, which is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the World Conservation Union.
3. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on its Tentative List.
4. These bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee.