Royal burial mounds are India’s latest heritage site

The Charaideo Moidam royal burial complex and shrines in India have been named as a new World Heritage Site by the United Nations cultural agency.

UNESCO experts, who are deliberating on a list of sites nominated for the World Heritage Site tag, announced the decision in Indian capital New Delhi, where they are holding their 46th session.

The Charaideo Moidams, built by northeast India’s Ahom dynasty in Assam state, are a mound burial system that served as a resting place for Ahom kings and queens.

They were built by providing an earth cover over a hollow vault made of bricks, stone or earth.

The designated site contained 90 moidams of different sizes created over 600 years, and included other cultural features such as ceremonial pathways and bodies of water, said a spokesperson from ICOMOS, the advisory body of the World Heritage Committee.

“The moidams are an exceptional example of an Ahom necropolis that represents funeral traditions and associated beliefs in a tangible way,” it said.

The Ahom clan established their capital in different parts of the Brahmaputra River Valley between the 12th and 18th centuries, after migrating from China, according to the UN cultural agency’s website.

They established the first capital at the Patkai hills in eastern India and named it Charaideo, which means “a dazzling city above the mountain”.

Even though the clan moved across cities, the burial site they built was seen as the most sacred place for the departed souls of the royals.

Experts say the shrines showcase the architecture and expertise of Assam’s masons, comparing them to the royal tombs of China and the pyramids of the Egyptian pharaohs.

The site has the largest concentration of these vaulted mound burials, according to UNESCO, and reflects the sculpted landscape of the surrounding hills.

India is home to 43 World Heritage Sites.

Other sites named on Friday include the Colonies of the Moravian Church in Germany, the US and UK; the Umm Al-Jimal in Jordan; and the Badain Jaran Desert in China.

The committee also inscribed the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, in the archaeological site of Tell Umm Amer in the Gaza Strip, on both the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger.

It said the decision recognised the site’s value and the need to protect it given threats posed by the conflict in the Gaza Strip.