Kashmir's gardens fight for heritage status

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http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/05/201152210472291902.html


Ornate parks built by the 17th-century Mughal dynasty have been restored - now admirers are seeking the UN's protection.


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In the past ten years, Iqbal has returned to these gardens, but now as a conservation architect on a mission. She's part of a team working to get half a dozen 17th-century gardens built by rulers from the Mughal dynasty inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, even as uncertainty and paramilitary presence lingers in the Kashmir valley. Besides protecting the sites, preservationists say the recognition could help in restoring a sense of history in a setting where memory is dominated by the recent troubled times, as well as putting Kashmir on the world map for something other than conflict.

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The gardens, constructed in the 1600s by the Mughals, include Nishat, Shalimar, Chashma Shahi and Pari Mahal in Kashmir's summer capital of Srinagar; and Achabal and Verinag near the southern city of Anantnag. They are known for their pavilions, water channels, fountains and colourful blossoms set across dramatic terraces.

UNESCO entered these gardens onto its tentative list of heritage sites in December. Iqbal's team at the Jammu and Kashmir chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), a non-profit that initiated efforts for the World Heritage designation, is now developing a final dossier that must extensively detail the gardens' history and long-term management and preservation plans. The group held a conference last week in Srinagar with local and foreign historians, horticulturists, tourism officials and other experts to discuss what factors must be considered in creating the proposal. The process can take a year or more.

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The longevity of the Mughal gardens has made them a constant amid the changes of the centuries and they have occupied a permanent place in the valley's poetry, according to Kashmiri poet Shafi Shauq.

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"A family picnicking around a sizzling samovar in a sunny corner of a sprawling garden seeks a reassurance that they too have a share of leisure, a share of freedom and right to partake in spontaneity of nature," Shauq said. "The gardens are a symbol of the yearning for peace, prosperity and permanence."
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hope the UN gives them heritage status

I've always said that if I ever won the lottery I would visit the world's gardens. the Kashmir gardens would be on my list.