Why UNESCO dropped Yanaginogosho off
Hiraizumi as the world heritage site?
柳之御所が世界遺産の平泉から落とされた理由
According to the professor I discussed this
matter with, he said the people in charge of selecting world heritages chose
only the religion connected sites for Hiraizumi. The religion is Buddhism and
Yanaginogosho was the palace for one of the Fujiwara families that ruled the
north of Japan for one hundred years.
The problem is without Yanaginogosho, there
was no Buddhist temples or gardens. Yanaginogosho was the center and the
accumulation of the culture which was unique to that region. The professor
seemed to regret that the Japan side committee brought up "Pure Land
Buddhism" into this argument. I read the UNESCO site as follows and
understood why he said that: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1277
I think the Japanese official out of desperation trying to include Yanaginogosho to the world heritage piped the uniqueness
using the term “Pure Land Buddhism.” The term sounds magical but I’m not
impressed. How Japanese live with religions is different from the western
standards. And Buddhism is quite different religion from Christianity and other western religions.
I think if we can, it’s more important to raise awareness of the difference than just to have Yanaginogosho included to the world heritage site. I know that's really tough, but after all, if UNESCO is the world standards, it cannot remain the western centric forever. What do you think?
I think if we can, it’s more important to raise awareness of the difference than just to have Yanaginogosho included to the world heritage site. I know that's really tough, but after all, if UNESCO is the world standards, it cannot remain the western centric forever. What do you think?
