Tilaurakot is the ancient capital city of the Sakyas where Prince Siddhartha spent twenty nine years of his early life.  The process of enlistment of Tilaurakot on the World Heritage Site has been accelerated after 25 years. For the first time, the process of enlistment was initiated in 1995 and UNESCO put Tilaurakot on its Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in 1996. The process had been halted for a long time as full fledge of scientific excavation of the site was not conducted at Tilaurakot. 

Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), Department of Archaeology (DoA), Durham University, UK and UNESCO Office Kathmandu have been jointly excavating the sites of Tilaurakot since 2014. Ram Bahadur Kunwar, Chief Archeology Officer of DoA said, “Nine years of scientific study at Tilaurakot uncovered many archaeological structures and artifacts as mentioned by Chinese traveler monks Faxian and Xuanzang, dating back to the Sakya era.  

DoA and LDT have formed a committee led by Mr. Kai Waise, an international heritage expert of UNESCO for an initial task of preparing the World Heritage Nomination Dossier. The committee worked for 5 months and has prepared a draft report that will be submitted in UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris after incorporating the feedback from the experts and stakeholders.  

A day discussion was organized at Taulihawa on Tuesday for the sharing of the contents of the reports with the stakeholders. Local community leaders and stakeholders took part in the discussion and commented on the report presented by team leader Mr. Waise. 

The discussion program was actively participated by National Assembly Member Dirgha Narayan Pandey, Former Minister Deep Kumar Upadhyay, Dambar Sharma and Babu Ram Khanal of CPN-UML, Ram Ashish Pandey of NC, Woman Leader Gita Anjan, Social Worker Gunakhar Gaire and many other stakeholders. The participants opined that participation of local people in planning and development of such heritages was essential for sustainable development of the area. They also suggested participating local communities in the land acquisition process, and conducting income generation and public awareness programs in the region. The stakeholders claimed that the enlistment of Tilaurakot on UNESCO World Heritage Site would boost tourism and help for sustainable development in the area. 

Chief Guest of the program and Lumbini Province Minister for Education and Social Development Dharma Bahadur Lal Shribastava stressed on regular interaction with local communities.  “Close cooperation between Federal and Province governments is needed for the development of Kapilavstu Area '', he added. 

Vice-Chairman Awadhesh Kumar Tripathi said that LDT was working for all round development of conservation of Kapilavastu area. He briefed that he was in contact with Duncan Marshall, an expert in writing the World Heritage Nomination Dossier. “And Mr. Duncan is very positive to come to Tilaurakot for the field visit.” he said. 
LDT Member Secretary Sanuraja Shakya extended warm welcome to the participants and wished for fruitful discussion session. The Member Secretary also informed that the LDT was working committedly to list Tilaurakot in the World Heritage List of UNESCO so that Kapilavastu, the home town of three Buddhas is heighted around the globe.  

Nepal has a schedule to submit a draft report to UNESCO by September of 2022. Final report will be submitted by the end of January 2023 focusing on the meeting of the World Heritage Center, which is going to be held in 2024 in Paris.