Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang – Plain of Jars

The Plain of Jars, located on a plateau in central Laos, gets its name from more than 2,100 tubular-shaped megalithic stone jars used for funerary practices in the Iron Age. This serial site of 15 components contains large carved stone jars, stone discs, secondary burials, tombstones, quarries and funerary objects dating from 500 BCE to 500 CE. The jars and associated elements are the most prominent evidence of the Iron Age civilization that made and used them until it disappeared, around 500 CE.

 Lao People's Democratic Republic

N19 25 51.8 E103 9 8

Date of Inscription: 2019

Criteria: (iii)

Property : 174.56 ha

Buffer zone: 1,012.94 ha

Ref: 1587

Source: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1587

Bagan

Lying on a bend of the Ayeyarwady River in the central plain of Myanmar, Bagan is a sacred landscape, featuring an exceptional range of Buddhist art and architecture. The site’s eight components include numerous temples, stupas, monasteries and places of pilgrimage, as well as archaeological remains, frescoes and sculptures. The property bears spectacular testimony to the peak of Bagan civilization (11th–13th centuries CE), when the site was the capital of a regional empire. This ensemble of monumental architecture reflects the strength of religious devotion of an early Buddhist empire.

 Myanmar

N21 8 56 E94 53 4

Date of Inscription: 2019

Criteria: (iii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 5,005.49 ha

Buffer zone: 18,146.83 ha

Ref: 1588

Source: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1588

Namhansanseong

Namhansanseong was designed as an emergency capital for the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910), in a mountainous site 25 km south-east of Seoul. Built and defended by Buddhist monk-soldiers, it could accommodate 4,000 people and fulfilled important administrative and military functions. Its earliest remains date from the 7th century, but it was rebuilt several times, notably in the early 17th century in anticipation of an attack from the Sino-Manchu Qing dynasty. The city embodies a synthesis of the defensive military engineering concepts of the period, based on Chinese and Japanese influences, and changes in the art of fortification following the introduction from the West of weapons using gunpowder. A city that has always been inhabited, and which was the provincial capital over a long period, it contains evidence of a variety of military, civil and religious buildings and has become a symbol of Korean sovereignty.

 Republic of Korea

N37 28 44 E127 10 52

Date of Inscription: 2014

Criteria: (ii)(iv)

Property : 409.06 ha

Buffer zone: 853.71 ha

Ref: 1439

Source: https://whc.unesco.org

Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area

There are around 48 Buddhist monuments in the Horyu-ji area, in Nara Prefecture. Several date from the late 7th or early 8th century, making them some of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world. These masterpieces of wooden architecture are important not only for the history of art, since they illustrate the adaptation of Chinese Buddhist architecture and layout to Japanese culture, but also for the history of religion, since their construction coincided with the introduction of Buddhism to Japan from China by way of the Korean peninsula.

 Japan

Nara Prefecture

N34 37 0 E135 43 60

Date of Inscription: 1993

Criteria: (i)(ii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 15.03 ha

Buffer zone: 571 ha

Ref: 660

Source: https://whc.unesco.org

Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara

Nara was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784. During this period the framework of national government was consolidated and Nara enjoyed great prosperity, emerging as the fountainhead of Japanese culture. The city's historic monuments – Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and the excavated remains of the great Imperial Palace – provide a vivid picture of life in the Japanese capital in the 8th century, a period of profound political and cultural change.

 Japan

Nara Prefecture

N34 40 32 E135 50 22

Date of Inscription: 1998

Criteria: (ii)(iii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 617 ha

Buffer zone: 1,962.5 ha

Ref: 870

Source: https://whc.unesco.org

Hubei Shennongjia

Located in Hubei Province, in central-eastern China, the site consists of two components: Shennongding/Badong to the west and Laojunshan to the east. It protects the largest primary forests remaining in Central China and provides habitat for many rare animal species, such as the Chinese Giant Salamander, the Golden or Sichuan Snub-nosed Monkey, the Clouded Leopard, Common Leopard and the Asian Black Bear. Hubei Shennongjia is one of three centres of biodiversity in China. The site features prominently in the history of botanical research and was the object of international plant collecting expeditions in the 19th and 20th centuries. 

 China

N31 28 11 E110 14 38

Date of Inscription: 2016

Criteria: (ix)(x)

Property : 73,318 ha

Buffer zone: 41,536 ha

Ref: 1509

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Mount Sanqingshan National Park

Mount Sanqingshan National Park, a 22,950 ha property located in the west of the Huyaiyu mountain range in the northeast of Jiangxi Province (in the east of central China) has been inscribed for its exceptional scenic quality, marked by the concentration of fantastically shaped pillars and peaks: 48 granite peaks and 89 granite pillars, many of which resemble human or animal silhouettes. The natural beauty of the 1,817 metre high Mount Huaiyu is further enhanced by the juxtaposition of granite features with the vegetation and particular meteorological conditions which make for an ever-changing and arresting landscape with bright halos on clouds and white rainbows. The area is subject to a combination of subtropical monsoonal and maritime influences and forms an island of temperate forest above the surrounding subtropical landscape. It also features forests and numerous waterfalls, some of them 60 metres in height, lakes and springs.

 China

N28 54 57 E118 3 52

Date of Inscription: 2008

Criteria: (vii)

Property : 22,950 ha

Buffer zone: 16,850 ha

Ref: 1292

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Chengjiang Fossil Site

A hilly 512 ha site in Yunnan province, Chengjiang’s fossils present the most complete record of an early Cambrian marine community with exceptionally preserved biota, displaying the anatomy of hard and soft tissues in a very wide variety of organisms, invertebrate and vertebrate. They record the early establishment of a complex marine ecosystem. The site documents at least sixteen phyla and a variety of enigmatic groups as well as about 196 species, presenting exceptional testimony to the rapid diversification of life on Earth 530 million years ago, when almost all of today’s major animal groups emerged. It opens a palaeobiological window of great significance to scholarship.

 China

N24 40 8 E102 58 38

Date of Inscription: 2012

Criteria: (viii)

Property : 512 ha

Buffer zone: 220 ha

Ref: 1388

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Singapore Botanic Gardens

The Bandstand

The Bandstand

Burkill Hall

Situated at the heart of the city of Singapore, the site demonstrates the evolution of a British tropical colonial botanic garden that has become a modern world-class scientific institution used for both conservation and education. The cultural landscape includes a rich variety of historic features, plantings and buildings that demonstrate the development of the garden since its creation in 1859. It has been an important centre for science, research and plant conservation, notably in connection with the cultivation of rubber plantations, in Southeast Asia since 1875.

 Singapore

N1 18 55 E103 48 58

Date of Inscription: 2015

Criteria: (ii)(iv)

Property : 49 ha

Buffer zone: 137 ha

Ref: 1483

Source: https://whc.unesco.org

Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape

Located on the steep cliffs in the border regions of southwest China, these 38 sites of rock art illustrate the life and rituals of the Luoyue people. They date from the period around the 5th century BCE to the 2nd century CE. In a surrounding landscape of karst, rivers and plateaux, they depict ceremonies that have been interpreted as portraying the bronze drum culture once prevalent across southern China. This cultural landscape is the only remains of this culture today.

 China

N22 15 20 E107 1 23

Date of Inscription: 2016

Criteria: (iii)(vi)

Property : 6,621.6 ha

Buffer zone: 12,149.01 ha

Ref: 1508

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Kulangsu, a Historic International Settlement

Kulangsu is a tiny island located on the estuary of the Chiu-lung River, facing the city of Xiamen. With the opening of a commercial port at Xiamen in 1843, and the establishment of the island as an international settlement in 1903, this island off the southern coast of the Chinese empire suddenly became an important window for Sino-foreign exchanges. Kulangsu is an exceptional example of the cultural fusion that emerged from these exchanges, which remain legible in its urban fabric. There is a mixture of different architectural styles including Traditional Southern Fujian Style, Western Classical Revival Style and Veranda Colonial Style. The most exceptional testimony of the fusion of various stylistic influences is a new architectural movement, the Amoy Deco Style, which is a synthesis of the Modernist style of the early 20th century and Art Deco.

 China

N24 26 51 E118 3 43

Date of Inscription: 2017

Criteria: (ii)(iv)

Property : 316.2 ha

Buffer zone: 886 ha

Ref: 1541

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Vat Phou and Associated Ancient Settlements within the Champasak Cultural Landscape

The Champasak cultural landscape, including the Vat Phou Temple complex, is a remarkably well-preserved planned landscape more than 1,000 years old. It was shaped to express the Hindu vision of the relationship between nature and humanity, using an axis from mountain top to river bank to lay out a geometric pattern of temples, shrines and waterworks extending over some 10 km. Two planned cities on the banks of the Mekong River are also part of the site, as well as Phou Kao mountain. The whole represents a development ranging from the 5th to 15th centuries, mainly associated with the Khmer Empire.

 Lao People's Democratic Republic

Champasak Province

N14 50 54 E105 49 20

Date of Inscription: 2001

Criteria: (iii)(iv)(vi)

Property : 39,000 ha

Ref: 481

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Town of Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is an outstanding example of the fusion of traditional architecture and Lao urban structures with those built by the European colonial authorities in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its unique, remarkably well-preserved townscape illustrates a key stage in the blending of these two distinct cultural traditions.

 Lao People's Democratic Republic

Province of Luang Prabang

N19 53 20.004 E102 7 59.988

Date of Inscription: 1995

Minor boundary modification inscribed year: 2013

Criteria: (ii)(iv)(v)

Property : 820 ha

Buffer zone: 12,560 ha

Ref: 479bis

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Qinghai Hoh Xil

Qinghai Hoh Xil, located in the northeastern extremity of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, is the largest and highest plateau in the world. This extensive area of alpine mountains and steppe systems is situated more than 4,500 m above sea level, where sub-zero average temperatures prevail all year-round. The site’s geographical and climatic conditions have nurtured a unique biodiversity. More than one third of the plant species, and all the herbivorous mammals are endemic to the plateau. The property secures the complete migratory route of the Tibetan antelope, one of the endangered large mammals that are endemic to the plateau.

 China

N35 22 49 E92 26 21

Date of Inscription: 2017

Criteria: (vii)(x)

Property : 3,735,632 ha

Buffer zone: 2,290,904 ha

Ref: 1540

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Temple Zone of Sambor Prei Kuk, Archaeological Site of Ancient Ishanapura

The archaeological site of Sambor Prei Kuk, “the temple in the richness of the forest” in the Khmer language, has been identified as Ishanapura, the capital of the Chenla Empire that flourished in the late 6th and early 7th centuries AD. The vestiges of the city cover an area of 25 sq km and include a walled city centre as well as numerous temples, ten of which are octagonal, unique specimens of their genre in South-East Asia. Decorated sandstone elements in the site are characteristic of the pre-Angkor decorative idiom, known as the Sambor Prei Kuk Style. Some of these elements, including lintels, pediments and colonnades, are true masterpieces. The art and architecture developed here became models for other parts of the region and lay the ground for the unique Khmer style of the Angkor period.

 Cambodia

N12 52 21 E105 2 10

Date of Inscription: 2017

Criteria: (ii)(iii)(vi)

Ref: 1532

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Temple of Preah Vihear

Situated on the edge of a plateau that dominates the plain of Cambodia, the Temple of Preah Vihear is dedicated to Shiva. The Temple is composed of a series of sanctuaries linked by a system of pavements and staircases over an 800 metre long axis and dates back to the first half of the 11th century AD. Nevertheless, its complex history can be traced to the 9th century, when the hermitage was founded. This site is particularly well preserved, mainly due to its remote location. The site is exceptional for the quality of its architecture, which is adapted to the natural environment and the religious function of the temple, as well as for the exceptional quality of its carved stone ornamentation.

 Cambodia

N14 23 18 E104 41 2

Date of Inscription: 2008

Criteria: (i)

Property : 154.7 ha

Buffer zone: 2,642.5 ha

Ref: 1224rev

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Khangchendzonga National Park

Located at the heart of the Himalayan range in northern India (State of Sikkim), the Khangchendzonga National Park includes a unique diversity of plains, valleys, lakes, glaciers and spectacular, snow-capped mountains covered with ancient forests, including the world’s third highest peak, Mount Khangchendzonga. Mythological stories are associated with this mountain and with a great number of natural elements (caves, rivers, lakes, etc.) that are the object of worship by the indigenous people of Sikkim. The sacred meanings of these stories and practices have been integrated with Buddhist beliefs and constitute the basis for Sikkimese identity.

 India

N27 45 53 E88 22 38

Date of Inscription: 2016

Criteria: (iii)(vi)(vii)(x)

Property : 178,400 ha

Buffer zone: 114,712 ha

Ref: 1513

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary

Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary

Forming a mountain ridge running north-south along the Pujada Peninsula in the south-eastern part of the Eastern Mindanao Biodiversity Corridor, the Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary has an elevation range of 75–1,637 m above sea level and provides critical habitat for a range of plant and animal species. The property showcases terrestrial and aquatic habitats at different elevations, and includes threatened and endemic flora and fauna species, eight of which are found only at Mount Hamiguitan. These include critically endangered trees, plants and the iconic Philippine eagle and Philippine cockatoo.

 Philippines

N6 43 1.81 E126 10 24.35

Date of Inscription: 2014

Criteria: (x)

Property : 16,923.07 ha

Buffer zone: 9,729.77 ha

Ref: 1403rev

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Tusi Sites

Site of Tangya Tusi Domain

Located in the mountainous areas of south-west China, this property encompasses remains of several tribal domains whose chiefs were appointed by the central government as ‘Tusi’, hereditary rulers from the 13th to the early 20thcentury. The Tusi system arose from the ethnic minorities’ dynastic systems of government dating back to the 3rd century BCE. Its purpose was to unify national administration, while allowing ethnic minorities to retain their customs and way of life. The sites of Laosicheng, Tangya and Hailongtun Fortress that make up the site bear exceptional testimony to this form of governance, which derived from the Chinese civilization of the Yuan and Ming periods.

• 1474-001 - Site of Laosicheng Tusi Domain
• 1474-002 - Site of Tangya Tusi Domain
• 1474-003 - Site of Hailongtun Tusi Fortress

 China

N28 59 55 E109 58 1

Date of Inscription: 2015

Criteria: (ii)(iii)

Property : 781 ha 

Buffer zone: 3,125 ha

Ref: 1474

Source: http://whc.unesco.org

Keoladeo National Park

This former duck-hunting reserve of the Maharajas is one of the major wintering areas for large numbers of aquatic birds from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, China and Siberia. Some 364 species of birds, including the rare Siberian crane, have been recorded in the park.

 India

State of Rajasthan, 50 km west of Agra

N27 9 32 E77 30 31

Date of Inscription: 1985

Criteria: (x)

Property : 2,873 ha 

Ref: 340

Source: http://whc.unesco.org