Garima Sharma, Pune
The ‘Moidams’ from Assam will be considered for nomination on the World Heritage list on Sunday, July 28 during the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in New Delhi. These are 700-year-old mound-burial systems of the Ahom Dynasty. If nominated, Assam’s Moidams will be the first-ever cultural heritage site of the northeastern region.
The late medieval mound burial tradition of the Tai Ahom community of Assam is represented by these ‘Charaideo Maidams’. These also represent the mortal remains of the Ahom royalty members. There are 90 royal burials out of 386 moidams which are best preserved at Charaideo. The Moidam architecture is one of the secular and religious architectural activities in the Ahom community’s reigns.
The structure of the Moidams are like ‘vaulted chambers’ and are often double-storied. For the entry, there is an arched passage. The top of these moidams are made of layers of bricks and earth, and the hemispherical mud mounds. An arched getaway on the west and a polygonal toe-wall support the base of the mound. As per the sources, each vaulted chamber has a platform that is centrally raised where the body was laid. According to the UNESCO website, gold ornaments, weapons, clothes, and even human beings were buried along with the king.
The event is being held for the first time in India from July 21 to 31. It will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Bharat Mandapam. The nomination was sent a decade ago and now Assam’s Moidams are just the first step towards being on the final list from the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage list.
The inclusion of ‘moidams’ in the heritage list was recommended by the International Council of Monuments and Sites (Icomos), Unesco’s advisory council in its report titled “Evaluations of Nominations of Cultural and Mixed Properties’ to acknowledge the Tai Ahom’s tradition at Charaideo, which is 600-year old.
According to the reports, An exceptional example to represent Tai Ahom’s funerary traditions and associated cosmologies in a tangible way, the Charaideo Moidam site is spread across a buffer zone of 754.511 hectares and an area of 95.02 hectares