Union Minister of State for Culture Meenakshi Lekhi said on Wednesday that the Centre will assist the Gujarat government in putting the Tana Riri music festival in Vadnagar on an international platform.
The Tana Riri festival, organised by the state government, is held every year in memory of Vadnagar singers and sisters Tana and Riri. A memorial to them is also being built in Vadnagar.
“We will try to make it (Tana Riri festival) an international festival. The Ministry (Culture) will support the state government fully. So, we will try to make Tana Riri an international music festival,” Meenakshi Lekhi said during the inauguration of three-day Vadnagar International Confer-ence held at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar Wednesday.
Further, adding on Vadnagar and the Buddhism connect, Lekhi said, “Buddha relics make Vadn-agar a very pious place and when Ministry is trying to develop Kushinbagar, Sarnath and other places as places of importance for Buddhist circuit I just pray Vadnagar is also one of them…”
Addressing the three-day conference, UNESCO Director and Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka Eric Falt said that UNESCO Director and Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka Eric Falt said, “UNESCO will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Safegu-arding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2023 next year in which the Government of India is in the process of nominating the Gujarati Garba folk tradition. We’ve not had an inscription but there is a good chance that it will change next year. Gujarat is one of the states in India with the highest number of World Heritage inscriptions with cultural and historical heritage sites like Champaner, Rani’s Vav, historic city Ahmedabad and Dholavira.”
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel inaugurated the conference, which was attended by Union Minister Lekhi, Gujarat Minister for Youth and Cultural Activities Harsh Sanghvi, and UNESCO Director and Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka Eric Falt.
The CM expressed the state government’s determination to present Vadnagar’s glorious history and cultural heritage to the world as a Landmark Heritage Tourism Destination.