By: Imtiyaz Ahmed
Srinagar: The Amar Singh College Srinagar’s recognition with the ‘Award of Merit’ in the 2020 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation has once again brought the spotlight on conservation of cultural and historical heritage of Kashmir, particularly Srinagar city.
This year, the jury awarded two Special Recognition for Sustainable Development awards, one Award of Excellence, one Award of Distinction, one Award for New Design in Heritage Contexts and three Awards of Merit, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Jammu and Kashmir chapter said.
“Undertaken with a high level of technical proficiency, the project reversed major deterioration resulting from years of inappropriate additions, poor maintenance, and catastrophic events such as the unprecedented flooding in 2014,” the jury said in its comments about the work done one the project.
Expressing his satisfaction on the conservation award, Saleem Beg, head of J&K chapter of INTACH told Ziraat Times, “This restoration project has helped in showcasing that traditional buildings represent a unique synthesis of colonial forms and vernacular skills. These buildings follow technologies evolved over years with attention to aesthetic and disaster resilience. They are part of the identity and authencity of the bygone era.”
“The project team’s meticulous attention to original building design and materials involved training a new generation of building artisans in brick and stone masonry. The project serves as a noteworthy model for safeguarding a unique 20th-century architectural asset in the Victorian neighborhood of the old city of Srinagar”, the UNESCO jury further said on the preservation work of the Amor Singh Club.
Pertinently, Srinagar city has a treasure of architectural heritage spanning several centuries. The old Srinagar city is recognized as one of the oldest surviving wood-built cities of the world. INTACH’s immense work in digitization, restoration and preservation of numerous works of architecture in Srinagar has won it wide accolades.
Thanks to this work, the Mughal Gardens of Nishat, Shalimar, Achabal, Chashma Shahi, Pari Mahal and Verinag have already been officially recommended to be included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Experts believe that a formal UNESCO’s World Heritage tag to these gardens would supplement the efforts of their conservation and preservation, including the availability of decent funding.
The submission proposal to UNESCO for the listing of these heritage sites says, “Apart from these factors, the Mughal Gardens of Nishat, Shalimar, Achabal, Chashma Shahi, Pari Mahal and Verinag also demonstrate the excellent engineering skills of the Mughals in making optimum use of the difficult topography and abundant supply of water when laying out these pleasure gardens at the specifically chosen sites. The use of the terraces as raised walkways (khayabans) and the numerous cascading chadars are given the topography key features in the Mughal gardens of Kashmir. The gardens of Nishat, Shalimar, Chasma Shahi and Pari Mahal near Srinagar also demonstrate an outstanding ingenuity in creation physical and visual links with Dal Lake and key landmarks.”
They are the most excellent testimonies of this prolific period of garden creations by the Mughals and from the period that represented a height of the Mughal gardening craftsmanship. These gardens, created as integral art pieces within the unique character and context of the Kasmir Valley, must therefore be seen as masterpieces of mountain-side type Mughal Gardens, the submission proposal to UNESCO says.
