World Heritage Sites—Religious bias and Diversity
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage list represents universal human world culture through heritage site recognition. World heritage sites feature multiple aspects of heritage from different cultures and peoples. A significant portion of sites on the World Heritage list (N=1154), however, are related to the worlds’ five major religions (N=536; 46%). A review of religious representation on the World Heritage list, therefore, is necessary to ascertain if these places our upholding outstanding universal value for all cultures around the world.
Hinduism has 30 sites on the list ranging from temples, monuments, and cities.
Judaism has 11 sites that contain historic centers, walls, and cities.
Buddhism has 61 sites comprised of temples, ruins, mountains, and roads.
Islam has 141 sites that includes places of worship, cities, archaeological sites, and monuments.
Christianity has 293 sites with a variety of churches, cathedrals, monasteries, historic towns, and cities.
The large gap between Christian-related sites and sites from other prominent religions shows not only the impact of colonialization on World Heritage but also the Eurocentric lens of the World Heritage list.
Colonialization history has caused rifts in society and culture over the years and movements towards decolonialization are gaining momentum. To begin diversifying the list, I suggest having a minimum or maximum number of religious sites from overly represented religions allowed to be added to the list. In addition, I suggest a push to nominate places on the list from other religious besides the major five that did not leave as much monumental architecture. Balancing the World Heritage list should be one of UNESCO’s major goals, and diversifying religious representation is an important step in the right direction
