UNESCO listing to boost Kuthodaw visitors

UNESCO listing to boost Kuthodaw visitors

By Shwe War Lwin   |   Monday, 08 July 2013

The world's largest book is about to gain a lot more readers. The inscribed stone tablets at Kuthodaw Pagoda in Mandalay were last month listed on the Memory of the World Register of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Tourists at Kuthodaw Pagoda in Mandalay. (Shwe War Lwin/The Myanmar Times)

This means the site is likely to draw many more tourists, said U Tun Thein, secretary of the pagoda's trustee board.

"The number of tourists studying these inscriptions has increased and we expect the number will rise more after the announcement," said U Tun Thein, who also expects the upcoming SEA Games to attract "a flood of visitors".

The site, at the foot of Mandalay Hill, features the entire Buddhist canon, or Tipitaka, inscribed on 729 large stone tablets. It was created to mark the convening of the Fifth Buddhist Synod, which was convened by King Mindon in 1871.

The inscriptions were one of 54 additions to the Memory of the World Register that were approved by UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova on June 18.

The register now includes 299 documents and document collections from five continents.

U Thein Tun said the listing will "raise the country's status" and potentially boost tourism-related earnings but said it also showed the need to "make constant restoration works".

He added that while the trustees used to charge foreign visitors US$3, it stopped doing so in 2004 when the Department of Archaeology took over responsibility for maintaining the site.

Translated by Zar Zar Soe

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/07/12/unesco-listing-to-boost-kuthodaw-visitors/