Santiniketan is India’s 41st UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This post is a personal tribute by VarnikaDesigns to Santiniketan for this honour.
“It is an ensemble of historic buildings, landscapes and gardens, pavilions, artworks, and continuing educational and cultural traditions that together express its Outstanding Universal Value.
Established in rural West Bengal in 1901, Santiniketan was founded by Rabindranath Tagore, a renowned poet and philosopher.
The built and open spaces of Santiniketan constitute an exceptional global testimony to ideas of environmental art and educational reform where progressive education and visual art are intertwined with architecture and landscape, with the Ashram, Uttarayan, and Kala-Bhavana areas forming the prime sites of these practices.
Santiniketan is also directly and tangibly associated with the ideas, works and vision of Rabindranath Tagore and his associates, pioneers of the Bengal School of Art and early Indian Modernism.
This UNESCO recognition not only celebrates India’s heritage but also reinforces the global significance of Santiniketan as a cultural and educational beacon.
The World Heritage Convention, adopted by UNESCO in 1972, strives to safeguard such exceptional places for future generations, recognizing their universal value and the need for international cooperation in their protection.
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.”
17 September 2023
https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/santiniketan-new-indian-site-unesco-world-heritage-list
Older posts by me on Santiniketan are:
The young boy who didn’t like going to school
‘Varnika’ explained
The world’s nest at Santiniketan
The Santiniketan Express: to melody and peace
Palash: the Flame of the Forest flower
Amar Kutir: revolutionaries, Batik & local culinary delight!
Riten Mozumdar: Free India’s first textile designer
Nobel Prize for Economics & the Santiniketan connection
These are two Rabindra Sangeet sung by a trained Rabindra Sangeet singer, Dr Syamali Das. She trained under the Guru Suchitra Mitra at Dakshini, Kolkata, in the 1950s.
All photos (except for the one of Rabindranath Tagore) and videos have been taken by the author of this post, Poulomi Das. Kindly attribute the author and the blog before using the photos and videos, take permission from varnikaz@yahoo.co.in
Please comment on the post, it is very encouraging.
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VarnikaDesigns 
This was gorgeous, left me feeling a lot more educated!
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Thank you 🙂 please share…
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Wow..The Pictures you have taken for this blog are breathtaking. Now I want to Visit 😀
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Please do… thank you for the compliment 🙂
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