KP: Nonpareil Place For Aesthetes To Quench Their Thirst For Gandhara Art

Khyber Pakthunkhwa is a unique province blessed with numerous archeological sites of Gandhara civilization and its promotion through digital platforms is imperative to attract huge foreign investment for the country

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Mar, 2023 ) :Khyber Pakthunkhwa is a unique province blessed with numerous archeological sites of Gandhara civilization and its promotion through digital platforms is imperative to attract huge foreign investment for the country.

While travelling on GT Road and Swat Motorway in northern districts of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, a visitor can explore dozens of archaeological sites of Gandhara civilization, including Lord Bhuddha's artifacts, statues and antiquities at different areas and state museums in Swat, Mardan, Dir and Peshawar to explore the unique ancient treasures besides taking tourists into the glorious history of the region.

The tourists, while entering Peshawar Museum where over 30,000 rare artifacts, statues, antiquities and sculptures were put on display along with ancient dresses of Wazirisan tribesmen, swords of freedom fighters and guns of British army, could not remain unimpressed after seeing these treasures.

The museums of Hund Swabi, Dir Timergara, Mingora Swat and Chitral also drew archeologists and monks from across globe to witness numerous precious antiquities and Ghandara's artifacts.

"These rare collections were excavated from various archaeological sites in KP, which tell us the story of human evolution and their lifestyle besides the rise and fall of civilizations, spread of belief systems and stories encompassing lifespan of the Lord Buddha," said Bakhtzada Khan, Research Officer at KP Archeology and Museums Department while talking to APP on Thursday.

Takht-i-Bahi, Barikot, Bazira, Shingerdara Stupa, Butkara I, II & III, Jahanabad as well as Ghaligay and Gokdara cave with prehistoric rock carvings take tourist to the past's glory of Khyber Pakthunkhwa. "A climb up to the hilltop in Odigram Swat takes tourists to the birthplace of Padmasambhawa, the second Buddha who travelled across Asia to spread Buddhism." Bakhatzada said KP was home to around 2,000 heritage sites in addition to 30,000 relics of the Gandhara civilization where one can easily find sites, which are important as well as sacred for Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and other civilizations.

"Despite a vast number of heritage sites, UNESCO has only included six sites in Pakistan in the World Heritage List, including archaeological ruins at Moenjodaro Sindh, Buddhist monastery of Takht-i-Bahi and neighboring city remains at Seri Bahlol Mardan, and archeological ruins of Taxila in 1980." In 1981, he said, two other sites, Lahore Fort Shalamar Gardens and historical monuments of Makli, near the city of Thatta, Sindh were declared world heritage sites by the UNESCO besides Rohtas Fort in 1997.

He said another twenty-six Pakistani sites were on the tentative list for inclusion in the world heritage list. "Seri Bahlol Mardan and Taxila are a testimony to glorious past of the region," he said adding Taxila was the capital of Gandhara Kingdom with numerous ancient sites such as Dharmarajika Stupa, the ancient cities of Bhir, Sirkap and Sirsukh, Jandial Temple, Mohra Muradu, Badalpur Stupa, Bhallar Stupa, Julian Monastery and Bhamala Stupa.

"Taxila University is known to be the citadel of knowledge of ancient times even before the advent of Buddhism as Jivaka, the personal physician of Lord Buddha, who was a graduate in Ayurvedic medicine from Taxila University." "Today is an era of digital technology and social media.

For sustainable religious tourism and development, we not only need to preserve our own tangible and intangible cultural heritage, but also build new infrastructure while upgrading and improving the existing ones for economic benefits and enhancing the country's image abroad," said Manzoorul Haq, former ambassador.

"We should not only rely on the government departments for the protection, projection and preservation of ancient heritage sites, but as a society it is our collective responsibility to preserve these sites through sensitization of local population towards importance of culture and heritage for minorities in Pakistan." He said this could be done by employing digital documentation in photographic and videography form especially through social media. To promote these sites, he said 3D models of various sites could be created and augmented as well as virtual reality interventions could be made.

Manzoor said storytelling sessions were crucial for preservation of traditional knowledge and folk wisdom and communal gathering places like chaupal and hujras played a significant role of transferring local knowledge to next generation.

"Our creative artists and writers can create fictional and feature stories to produce dramas and films on Gandhara civilization of ancient Pakistan as western world has created fictional stories around Egyptian civilization in various films such as Indiana Jones and The Mummy etc," Manzoorul Haq who served as ambassador to Egypt said.

Various events, exhibitions, talks, seminars and festivals could be arranged to sensitize local people, while highlighting the significance of these sites, which are sacred for minorities, especially people of Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and other Asian countries.

"These kinds of activities will help our local population understand that having foreign tourists visiting their sacred religious places would generate a lot of revenue for them.

"For sustainable religious tourism, we need to work hard on infrastructure development all across the country, where heritage sites are located; building quality hotels and guesthouses with updated websites having complete information about weather, rates and booking details", he added.

Manzoor said, "Our museums need up-gradation to offer an inclusive approach with good displays and descriptive seminars as per international standards for the visitors. Installment of lifts, building ramps, offering range of souvenirs and different audio-visual programs can also increase the cash flow for museums and help them improve their services besides promoting research on Gandhara civilization.

Bakhzada said the Gandhara cultural heritage research centre in Islamabad had recently been inaugurated, adding the project 'Development of cultural promotion and tourism resources of Gandhara heritage of Pakistan' was funded by the Cultural Heritage Administration of Republic of Korea (CHA) and executed by Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation and Department of Archeology and Museum.

He said it was a five-year project 2021-2025 with four main tasks, including establishment of Gandhara culture heritage research centre, capacity building of professionals and experts for heritage conservation, inventory and investigation of Gandhara sites for digital documentation and support for development of sites and museums of Ghandara civilization.