Minister Kiranti stresses enhancing cultural ties between Nepal, India

Kathmandu, Mar. 28

Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu have launched a coffee table book – 'Religious and Spiritual Circuits Nepal and India' with the aim of joint promotion and development of connecting religious circuits in the two countries.

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Sudan Kirati, Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal, Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Naveen Shrivastav, and President of NICCI, Shreejana Rana jointly launched the book at a programme organised on Monday evening at the Patan Museum.

With the support from a group of experts from Nepal and India, the book includes five key areas of religious pilgrimage in the two countries: Shiva-Shakti Circuit, Mahabharata Circuit, Ramayana Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, and Sikh Circuit.

"Religious tourism and pilgrimages are an imperative aspect of tourism and highlighting the link between India-Nepal is essential to enhance and strengthen the relations. A coffee table book giving prominence to the circuits will be a crucial way to do this," NICCI said in a statement.

Speaking at the programme, Minister Kirati stressed on further enhancing and strengthening cultural and religious ties between Nepal and India. "Two countries have deep cultural and religious relations which are further strengthened by people to people relations. The two countries should work to get maximum benefits from it," he said.

Ambassador Srivastava said that the book would further contribute to enhance cultural and religious ties between the two countries and hope for a progress in the development of Ramayana Circuit at the earliest.

NICCI President, Rana, said that the book offers the reasons why people from the region and across the world should visit the religious and cultural heritages in Nepal and India. "This book is not only a book to encourage religious tourism between our two nations but also a record of the richness and depth of our religious heritage which spans the sub-continent and many parts of South-East Asia," she said. 

Contributing scholars of the book include Neera Mishra, Dr. Ramesh Dhungel, Dr. Basudev Krishna Sashtri, Ramesh Bhattarai, Dr. Hari Prasad Adhikari, Acharya Pandit Tek Narayan Upadhyaya, Gyanu Gurubaksh Singh, Rajinder Singh Chadha, Bikram Pande Kaji and Deepak Anand. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 March 2023.