September 25, 2004

A truly exciting piece of news is that the restored Baltit Fort located at Karimabad in Hunza has been honoured with the coveted Unesco 2004 Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for culture heritage conservation. This is an entirely new field of architectural activity in Pakistan, but it has immense potential because innumerable ancient structures, otherwise considered priceless, are awaiting similar attention.

Restoration is a highly specialized art and extremely expensive, and the expertise required for it is not commonly available in this country. Before restoration comes conservation for which the archaeology department is adequately equipped but, to repeat the old story, the cash-strapped department is not able to show appreciable results in conservation and is consequently much maligned by the press and by culture buffs. Despite the government’s frequent protestations, it keeps the department starved for funds, when there is so much to do that the mind boggles at the thought of it.

Here I must mention two terrible attempts at restoration work undertaken by a provincial agency in Lahore. I have watched Kamran’s graceful baradari in River Ravi gradually deteriorating to virtually nothing because of water action, when it could easily have been saved 40 years ago or 30 years ago or even 20 years ago, but nobody cared. When it fell on itself, some crazy genius in the Punjab government got money sanctioned to rebuild it. You should see this travesty of the original. It is garish with cheap ornamentation and looks, not like a Mughal monument, but something that a newly-rich billionaire has put up on the lawn of his palace to hold fancy parties. A similar attempt was made on Nur Jahan’s tomb but it was thankfully stopped before much harm could be done.

For restoration work, the only way out is for the culture ministry to send a couple of young archaeologists and architects abroad every year to acquire the necessary expertise. It is not an easy field of operation, for anyone undertaking restoration work must be fully acquainted with the architecture of the period involved and the styles of decoration and adornment prevailing in those times, and know how to simulate them and procure the necessary materials for it, and possibly train the men who can use them.

The decision to restore Baltit Fort was taken by the Aga Khan Foundation in Pakistan. The Ismaili leader has a vast following in Hunza and parts of Gilgit, as it has in Chitral. As my readers would perhaps know, the Aga Khan is passionately interested in old architecture and every year gives away awards for the best work done in any part of the world for preservation of ancient structures. One of the recipients of the award was the shrine-cum-mausoleum of Hazrat Bahauddin Zakariya in Multan which was found deserving because the conservation was done by Punjab Auqaf without foreign aid and advice under the guidance of the late Waliullah Khan, retired head of the Archaeology Department.

I was sorry to note that the news report about the Baltit Fort made no mention of Sohail Akbar Khan, a young architecture graduate of the National College of Arts, Lahore, who was commissioned by the foundation to supervise the work. He made a wonderful job of it, living, eating and sleeping in the fort, and looking after the minutest detail. Sohail had a feel for restoration work and had been trained under a British expert, the greatest living authority on heritage restoration, who was impressed by the young man’s deep interest. Sadly Sohail Akbar Khan died of a sudden heart attack a few months ago.

At the award-giving ceremony in Bangkok the Baltit Fort was praised for demonstrating “that historic structures can be saved, restored and recovered for continued use in the community.” The judges noted that the project exemplified excellence in conservation practice applied to largescale monuments and was a model for the revitalization of historical buildings throughout the northern regions of Pakistan. The fort’s restoration had fostered the local revival of traditional building trades while an associated handicraft project provided livelihood opportunities in the area.

The judges’ words “for continued use in the community” have been made true by the new use of the fort as a cultural centre and museum, in which capacity it attracts thousands of visitors to Hunza and has contributed to reinvigorating the local community’s pride in their heritage. The Unesco Asia Pacific Heritage Award is specifically meant for private efforts by way of conservation and restoration.

Even from a distance the Baltit Fort is a stunning sight. It seems precariously perched on the mountainside with its windowless walls rising a hundred feet, and from its ramparts it is a sheer fall of more than a thousand feet on to the road behind it. Legend has it that autocratic rulers of old who lived in the fort used to have their opponents and traitors thrown down from the top of the wall. There was not the faintest possibility of survival.

I am always carping at the neglect of the national heritage by the official agencies, but for once I must give credit where credit is due. The federal Department of Archaeology has chalked out a master plan for restoring the Gandhara archaeological sites right from Taxila way up to the Swat valley. The object is two-fold — to protect and preserve the heritage and to attract tourists and foreign visitors. I think the government has suddenly become conscious of the fact that this whole area is a great draw for religious-minded Buddhists from the Far East, and particularly the rich Japanese who have started visiting the area in large numbers.

The project for implementing the master plan was actually launched last year and is expected to be complete in five years at a cost of Rs100 million. This is not a very large amount, but the Pakistan government hopes to supplement it by substantial aid from international organizations, donor countries and even private investors to see the plan through. I learn that it is banking on the new feeling in the civilized world that archaeological sites and historical monuments are a common heritage of entire mankind and that the countries possessing them are merely its trustees. (Remember my column on the subject some time ago?)

Under the master plan, the sites from Taxila to Swat were divided into two sections, viz. Taxila and Peshawar. While the Taxila section is mainly archaeological, the Peshawar section includes some historical monuments too, like the Takht-i-Bahi monastery near Mardan and Gorkhatree in Peshawar city. According to Abdul Azeem, Assistant Director in the Department of Archaeology and Museums, the heritage would be developed through both traditional and scientific techniques involving expertise from Unesco and some of the donor countries. It is being undertaken as a model project for future action at other sites.

Meantime, another initiative worth mentioning has been a three-day international conference on “sustainability of communities in remote environments like the Hindu Kush,” organized by the NWFP Archaeology and Museums Department at the Baragali summer camp of the Peshawar University. It was held in collaboration with the UK’s University of Glasgow only last week and its papers and lectures are still to be publicized.