Nagarparkar Temples
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 Shown within Sindh
Shown within Sindh
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| Location |
Karoonjhar Mountains Sindh Pakistan 
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| Coordinates | 24°21′21″N 70°45′16″E / 24.35583°N 70.75444°ECoordinates: 24°21′21″N 70°45′16″E / 24.35583°N 70.75444°E |
| Type | Jain temples and mosque |
| Official name | Nagarparkar Cultural Landscape |
| Type | Tentative listing |
| Criteria | iii, iv |
| Designated | 2016 |
| Reference no. | 6111 |
The Nagarparkar Jain Temples (Urdu: نگرپارکر جین مندر) are located in the region around Nagarparkar, in Pakistan's southern Sindh province. The site consists of a collection of abandoned Jain and temples, as well as a mosque heavily influenced by the architectural style of the temples. Buildings in the region date from the 12th to the 15th centuries - a period when Jain architectural expression was at its zenith. Frescoes at the Gori Temple are the oldest Jain frescoes still in existence in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. The temples were inscribed on the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status in 2016 as the Nagarparkar Cultural Landscape.
The region around Nagarparkar forms a zone of transition between the marshes and salt-flats of the Rann of Kutch, and the dry grounds of stabilized sand dunes and nearby pink-granite Karoonjhar Mountains. The region had been mostly covered by the Arabian Sea until the 15th century, though the region around Nagarparkar formed an area of raised and perennially dry land.
Nagarparkar was a centre of Jainism for several centuries, and the wealthy local Jain community built several extravagant temples in the nearby hills between the 12th and 15th centuries - considered a high point of Jain architectural expression. The region became a place of pilgrimage known as Sardhara, with Jain ascetics establishing themselves in the Karoonjhar Moutnains. The Nagarparkar region was described in 1650 as the "most glorious of all regions of India".
Jain influence in the region began to decline due to shifting of the Arabian Sea away from centres of Jain economic activity, as silt from the Indus River deposited in the Rann of Kutch. Changes in the coast line resulted in a large-scale shift of the local Jain population in the 19th century, while remaining Jains left the area following the Partition of British India in 1947, though several of the temples continue to be maintained by the area's sizable Hindu community. Several new temples were built in nearby Rajasthan, which trace their heritage back to older sites in Nagarparkar.
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