July 13, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 16, 1427

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PESHAWAR, July 12: Cultural relations between the areas comprising Pakistan and Korea are 1600 years old, according to archaeologist Prof Fidaullah Sehrai, an expert on the Buddhist civilisation of Gandhara.

He was delivering a lecture arranged for a group of tourists from South Korea at Peshawar museum, according to a press statement issued here on Wednesday.

Prof Sehrai said that it was the famous monk Marananda, a native of Chota Lahore in Swabi district who introduced Buddhism to Pakche, a part of Korea in 384 AD.

The modern Korean Buddhism is in fact ‘Zen Buddhism tinged with a belief in Amitabh Buddha or Maitreya Bodhisttva’, Prof Sehrai said. He said that various Gandharan monks and other gods and goddesses also travelled to Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia and other countries and became an important part of Buddhism, he said.

The first Buddha image in human form was created in Gandhara which is its greatest gift to the world of Buddhism, Prof Sehrai said.

He also briefed the tourists about the rise and fall of Gandhara art.

The Korean tourists also went round the museum which had displayed various Buddha statues and historic items of Gandhara civilisation.