Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sudan Kirati has expressed that development without culture will be soulless.
Speaking at the silver jubilee of the Nyeku Jatra Mataya Management Committee at Patan Durbar Square on Saturday, Minister Kirati said that culture had been internationally accepted as an integral part of sustainable development. “That is why any development work we carry out must take into account our culture and civilisation,” he said. He also said that Nepal’s heritage was unique and unparalleled in the world and needed to be promoted globally. Additionally, he stressed the need to develop a type of tourism that “delivers our native taste” to tourists and enjoys local ownership.
Kirati said that his ministry would do all it can to facilitate the reconstruction of Lalitpur’s historic structures and monuments damaged by the 2015 earthquake. Mayor of Lalitpur Metropolitan City Chiri Babu Maharjan drew his attention to how laws relating to public procurement and tendering were standing in the way of ensuring quality work. The Minister took this positively and said that he would work with the city to solve this problem.
Mayor Maharjan and officials of the Nyeku Jatra Committee also spoke at the event which was scheduled to be addressed by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’. But he could not attend.
The Nyeku Jatra Mataya Management Committee is the body responsible for managing the annual Mataya procession where hundreds of people visit more than 1,700 Hindu and Buddhist shrines around the historic settlements of Patan with candles, rice and other items of religious offering, accompanied by musical bands and merrymakers dressed as colourful characters. The procession is held in Patan on the third day of the dark fortnight of the Nepali month of Shrawan – a day after Gai Jatra.
Source : TRN,
