The campaign ‘One Lakh signature to enlist Janaki Temple, Janakpurdham as World Heritage Site’ was registered at Change.org by BHORE, a Janakpur-based non-profit, on October 1.  

The organisation has claimed that the Janaki temple meets all criteria set by the World Heritage Committee. The criteria include an ‘outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates significant stage in human history’.

The 12 century temple, which is also believed to be the birthplace of Hindu godess Sita, is one of the greatest pieces of architecture and holds significant historical, cultural, and religious importance. According to Mohan Krishna Sapkota, spokesperson and joint secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, the government is already working on a proposal to recommend various historical and cultural sites of Nepal for Unesco World Heritage Site enlistment. “Janaki Temple is also included in the list of the proposed additions to the tentative World Heritage Site list,” Sapkota said.

Other important sites, including medieval walled city of Lo Monthang in Mustang region, Vajrajogini temple in Nuwakot Palace and the medieval town of Tansen, have also beeen  included in the government’s tentative list for proposed World Heritage Site. While the efforts are being made to include additional sites in Nepal as a part of world heritage, the deteriorating conditions of the existing ones, becasue of poor maintenance and monitoring, has raised concern that Unesco could remove them from its World Heritage Site list.

There are 10 World Heritage Sites in Nepal, among them seven are inside the Kathmandu Valley.