May 20, 2006

Most of you may not know that our country Pakistan is home to some of the world’s oldest archaeological and religious sites. What comes as a bigger surprise is that these sites have been attracting a large number of tourists, especially from Buddhist South-East Asian states.

Keeping that in mind the Pakistan Ministry of Tourism decided to hold a ‘Gandhara Week’ to showcase its rich Buddhist heritage and boost tourism in the country. The tourism ministry’s ‘Gandhara Week’ commenced from April 24 till April 30.

For those of you who might not know much about Gandhara, here is some very interesting information. Gandhara is the name of a great ancient kingdom that was situated in the areas that are now the north-west province of Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly on northern side of Kabul River. In the east, it extended beyond Indus River and included within its boundaries parts of the valley of Kashmir with Peshawar and Taxila as its primary cities.

The Kingdom of Gandhara lasted from sixth century BC to 11th century AD. It attained its height and was believed to be one of the strongest and most powerful Kingdoms in those times from first century to fifth Century AD under Buddhist Kings, also known as the Buddhist Kushan Kings. But after it was conquered by Mahmood of Ghazni in 1021 AD, the name Gandhara disappeared.

Hence during the Muslim period the area was administered from Lahore or from Kabul by Mughals and the area was part of the Kabul province.

History of the lost Gandhara

The history of Gandhara shows it as an ancient centre of Buddhism, the cradle of the world famous Gandhara sculpture, culture and learning. The archaeological remains found in Taxila, Peshawar, Charsadda, Takht Bhai, Swat Valley along the ancient Silk Route have well recorded the history of Gandhara. Lying in Haro River valley, Taxila, the main centre of Gandhara, is over 3,000 years old as it had attracted the attention of the great conqueror, Alexander in 327 BC, when it was a province of the powerful Achaemenian Empire. It later came under the Mauryan dynasty and reached a remarkable matured level of development under the great King Ashoka. Then appeared the Indo-Greek descendants of Alexander’s warriors and finally came the most creative period of Gandhara.

The Kushan dynasty was established in about 50 AD. During the next 20 years, Taxila, Peshawar and Swat became a renowned centres of learning, philosophy, art and trade. Pilgrims and travelers were attracted to Gandhara from as far as China and Greece. In fifth century AD, the White Huns snuffed out the last of the successive civilisations that held unbroken control, power and influence in this region for several centuries. By the time Gandhara absorbed in to Mahmood of Ghazni empire, Buddhist buildings were already in ruins and Gandhara art had been forgotten. The history and art of the Gandhara remained unknown to the inhabitants of the area and the rest of the world until the 19th century.

In the 19th Century AD, British soldiers and administrators started taking interest in the ancient history of the subcontinent. In 1830s coins of post Ashoka period were discovered and in the same period Chinese travelogues were translated which provided locations and site plans of Buddhist shrines. Along with the discovery of coins, these records provided necessary clues to piece together the history of lost Gandhara.

In 1848 various Gandhara sculptures were found in north of Peshawar and the site of Taxila was identified and discovered in 1860s. From then on, a large number of Buddha statues were discovered in Peshawar valley.

The excavation of Taxila took place from 1912 to 1934 and a large number of stupas – circular structures containing Buddhist ruins, and monasteries – residences of Buddhist communities along with the great Greek, Parthian, and Kushan cities were discovered. These discoveries helped to finalise the chronology of history of Gandhara and its art.

After the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, Ahmed Hassan Dani and the Archeology Department of Peshawar University made a number of discoveries in the Peshawar and Swat Valleys. Excavations on many sites of the Gandhara Civilisation are being done by researchers from many universities around the world till the present day.

Gandharan Art

Gandhara is noted for the distinctive Gandhara style of Buddhist art, a result of the merger of Greek, Syrian, Persian and Indian art traditions. The development of this form of art started in 50 BC. Gandharan style flourished and achieved its peak during the Kushan period; however; it declined and suffered destruction after the invasion of the White Huns in the fifth century.

Gandharan art is characterised by the first representations of the Buddha in human form, which have helped define the artistic and particularly sculptural principle for Buddhist art throughout the Asian continent up to the present. It is also a unique example of the cultural blend between eastern and western traditions, which has been achieved by no other art to such a degree.

The ‘Gandhara Week’ – 2006

Pakistan is said to be the home of Gandharan civilisation and the Gandhara Week celebrations were held to raise awareness about its cultural heritage. The celebrations constituted educational programmes to give visitors an insight into one of the oldest civilisations of the world. The week commenced with foolproof arrangements and a large number of foreign tourists, including scholars, historians, archaeologists, journalists and writers, from all over the world visited Pakistan to participate in the event.

The event projected a very positive image of Pakistan to the tourists. The concluding ceremony was held at the Marriott hotel for the visiting foreign delegates on April 30. The delegates included 43 scholars, pilgrims, artists, researchers and diplomats from Kenya, Japan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, China, Nepal and Korea. They visited Taxila, Peshawar and Swat museums and the excavation sites at Takht-i-Bahi in Mardan, But-Kara in Swat, Pushkalavati in Charsadda and Sirkap and Julian in Taxila. Nilofar Bakhtiar, Federal Minister of Tourism said that in 2007, the Tourism, Ministry planned to organise 12 events throughout the year for the promotion of tourism in the country.

Speakers from Sri Lanka and Malaysia also spoke on the occasion. The delegates praised and highly appreciated the Government of Pakistan for preserving the Gandhara heritage and for organizing the weeklong celebrations. It is a fact that such events contribute a great deal in the image building of Pakistan and also promote our cultural heritage.

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