ISLAMABAD: The South Korean government has planned to arrange a pilot pilgrims’ tour to the Buddhist sacred places in Gandhara, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, by March or April this year.

This was stated by Ambassador of South Korea Kwak Sung-Kyu while talking to this news agency. The ambassador said he was working on the arrangements for sending the Buddhist pilgrims to the sacred places in KP.

He said the initiative would help further strengthen cultural ties between the two countries besides boosting religious tourism in Pakistan.

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Mr Sung-Kyu said the initiative would be followed by two other projects for capacity building of treating historical artifacts and inviting historical and archeological officials and academia, preferably from museums having collections of the Buddhist art of Gandhara, to Korea.

He said Pakistan and South Korea were enjoying warm cultural relations which were deep-rooted in history. Especially common heritage of Buddhism is of particular importance for further cementing cultural and religious ties between the two countries.

The ambassador recently handed over state-of-the-art conservation equipment worth $50,000 to the Department of Archeology and Museums in Islamabad.

The conservation equipment will help preservation of the moveable antiquities, especially specimen of the Buddhist art, uncovered from the archeological remains of Buddhist sanctuaries in the ancient Gandhara region.

The equipment included environmental control system for museum, devices for cleaning and conservation of antiquities, including conservation consumables, stereo-microscope and ultrasonic cleaner.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2019