WORK on the much-awaited World Sikh Heritage Museum started in Washington on Tuesday after a day-long seminar-cum-workshop organised by Dr Paul Michael Taylor of Smithsonian Museum Institute.

To set the ball rolling for its ambitious project, Mrs Jaswinder Kaur Chatha and Mrs Kamaljit Chaudhary presented a cheque for $ 1 million to the institute. Dr Narendar Singh Kampani of the Sikh Foundation of USA, besides signing an agreement to hand over all artefacts in his personal possession to Sikh Heritage Museum, also agreed to contribute $ 50,00,000 to Smithsonian institute as cost of maintenance of the new museum.

Among those present at the seminar and the subsequent function held in the evening was the Indian Ambassador to the USA, Mr Lalit Mansingh, and the Minister for Cultural Affairs of the Embassy of Pakistan in the USA.

While Mr Mansingh eulogised the contribution of Sikhs, the Pakistani diplomat promised all help and support for preserving Sikh heritage buildings in Pakistan.

Mr Tarlochan Singh, Vice-Chairman, National Commission for Minorities, who earlier inaugurated the day-long seminar, told ?The Tribune" over telephone that all participants, including academicians, technocrats, historians and others, earlier inspected and approved the site earmarked for Sikh Heritage Museum before the actual ground work started yesterday. Dr Kampani announced that the organisers of Asian Heritage Museum in San Francisco had also decided to include a Sikh gallery.

It may be mentioned here that Dr Paul Michael Taylor, who is the Director of Asian History Programme and curator of Smithsonian Museum, visited Delhi, Punjab and Chandigarh last year to give a final shape to the proposed Sikh Heritage Museum.

Inaugurating the seminar, Mr Tarlochan Singh stressed the need for setting of Sikh Heritage Museum or galleries in all those cities the world over where Punjabis in general and Sikhs in particular had settled in large numbers.

Others who spoke at the seminar on the preservation of Sikh heritage were Dr Jeewan Deol from Cambridge University in England; Dr Gurmeet Rai from New Delhi, Ms Geetika Kalha from Punjab, Dr Amandeep Singh Madra from London and a few others.

It was pointed out at the seminar that there were hardly any heritage buildings left in Punjab to be preserved. For example, the only heritage building in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar was Ramgarhia Bunga. The invaders and the SGPC were blamed for destroying or damaging the other heritage buildings in the complex.

Qila Mubarak of Patiala was suggested as the only international heritage building which should be preserved by the World Heritage Foundation. Mr Tarlochan Singh said that his suggestion about Qila Mubarak was unanimously accepted by the participants.

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