Pakistan's Gandhara heritage

The richest Buddhist historical legacy carved in rock:

Normally with Pakistan the only faith that comes to mind is Islam. But the white portion of the Pakistani flag signifying other religions are equally rich and gifted. Birth and final resting place of Baba Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh religion, a land where Buddhism flourished, home of Shiva and Kali and a mesmerizing gallery of Islamic sites make Pakistan a dream come true for any soul in search of peace.

The doors of every gurudwara, stupa, temple, mosque and church are open for you as Pakistan is blessed with spirituality like no other country in the world.

Buddhism left a monumental and rich legacy of art and architecture in Pakistan. Despite the vagaries of centuries, the Gandhara region preserved a lot of the heritage in craft and art. Much of this legacy is visible even today in Pakistan.

Today the Gandhara sculptures occupy a prominent place in the museums of England, France, Germany, USA, Japan, Korea, China, India and Afghanistan, together with many private collections world over, as well as a vast collection in the museums of Pakistan.

The Swat Museum accessed by road or via weekly flights from Islamabad contains an excellent collection of Gandhara sculptures taken from some of the Buddhist sites in Swat, rearranged and labeled to illustrate the Buddha's life story. Terracotta figurines and utensils, beads, precious stones, coins, weapons and various metal objects illustrate daily life in Gandhara. The ethnographic section displays the finest examples of local embroidery, carved wood and tribal jewellery.

Butkara Stupa: One of the most important Buddhist shrines in Swat is near the museum. The stupa is 400 meters across the fields to the left of the museum and is accessible from Saidu Sharif. The stupa, which dates from the second century BC, was possibly built by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka to house some of the ashes of the Buddha. In subsequent centuries, it was enlarged five times by encasing the existing structure in a new shell. Italian excavators working in 1955 exposed the successive layers of the stupa, each layer illustrating a stage in the evolution of building techniques.

Taxila and its Museum: Taxilla was the Easter capital of the Archaemenid Empire in 516 BC and called Taksashila, which was changed by Greek historians to Taxila. On every hill top around Taxila are the remains of either monasteries or stupas, nearly 50 of them within the radius of 10 klilometers. Taxila is approximately 35 kilometers from Islamabad on the main Grand Truck Road.

At Taxila you come face to face with the great Buddha. He looms over you larger than life. His serene eyes gaze at you till you find yourself gripped by a feeling of awe. You meet others also at Taxila. Alexander of Macedonia, for one. And Asoka, the famous Buddhist king. And the Emperor Kanishka, perhaps the greatest of them all. Their imprints are everywhere.

Exploring Taxila is a multi-dimensional experience. You are attracted by the richness and variety of the famed Gandhara sculpture. There are endless images of Buddha, in stone and stucco, and numerous panels depicting all the important stages of the great sage's life. Exquisitely sculpted friezes and statues of all sizes evoke the life and times of one of the worlds' most impressive men of peace: Gautama Buddha.

Each carved bit of sculpture, from the colossal to the miniature --- and there are literally thousands of them - is a collector's item. Even if you aren't exactly a devotee of the sculpture of the first century A.D., you will find it a challenge to trace similarities between the Gandhara masterpieces and their Graeco-Roman counterparts. Incidentally, it is these stone men and women of Gandhara who greet you so graciously in Taxila, or rather their craftsmen, who first gave visual expression to Buddha and his era.

And then there are the excavated ruins. Three distinct cities stretch before you in a surprisingly good state of preservation. With your imagination aided by the carved people who inhabit these cities, you will have little difficulty in picturing crowds on the well laid out streets, families in the spacious houses, priests in the towering stupas and royalty in the great palaces.

The archaeological museum at Taxila is a real treasure-house. Its collection of coins, jewellery, relics, and gold and silver caskets alone are worth a king's ransom. But its real glory comes from stone and stucco-that exquisite Gandhara sculpture crafted at a time when the world was young. Its impressive collection will help you get to know Gautama, the Lord Buddha, better.

The ivy-covered, Gothic-style museum is in a picturesque garden. There is in the central hall a plaster cast of the Stupa topped with seven umbrellas found in Mohra Moradu. As relief map of the valley pinpoints the location of the different excavated sites.

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