PESHAWAR: An olive tree brought from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem by a 19th century English missionary has survived to this day at Sheikh Badin — a former hill station in the southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The tree was identified by Faisal Amin Khan Gandapur who is MPA from Dera Ismail Khan. The MPA is spearheading an effort to restore Sheikh Badin as a hill resort.

Perched atop a 4,200 feet high hill and lying roughly between Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, Sheikh Badin was established as a hill station in the mid 19h century. It served as a sanctuary for missionaries and civil and military administrators who came here in the summers to escape the heat.

Rev Thomas John Lee Mayer (“T.J.L Mayer” b.1844 — d.1918) laboured in Bannu Mission from 1874 to 1889 as one of the senior most missionaries of that era until Dr Theodore Pennell replaced him. He died in old age at Thandiani in July 1918 and is buried on a hillside there.

“It need not be said that missionaries on the frontier in those days (1870s) rarely made their appearance in the Punjab, but they had one refuge from the extreme heat of summer, for – perched on bare rock hill, with no water within 10 miles, lay the summer station of Sheikhbudin 4,200 feet above sea level. An olive tree which grew there from a cutting obtained by Mr. Mayer from the Mount of Olives (Jerusalem) in a later year, long commemorated Mr. Mayer’s visit to that hill station.” [Excerpt from TJL Mayer missionary of Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan Obituary – Lahore Diocesan Magazine 1918] Mount of Olives is equally significant for Muslims, Jews and Christians alike. Dr Alan M Guenther, professor of history at Briercrest College in Canada, was asked about the significance of the Mount of Olives in Chirstianity. According to Dr Guenther, it figures prominently in certain events in the life of Jesus Christ.

“Christians believe Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives forty days after his resurrection from the dead.” He said: “The Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed before he was captured and crucified, as Christians believe, is at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Jesus also did some of his teaching from this Mount, as recorded in the New Testament.”

“Any Christian making a pilgrimage to Palestine would most likely visit the Mount of Olives. So if Rev. Mayer or someone he knew had made such a pilgrimage, bringing back a cutting from an olive tree would be a valued souvenir. Because olive trees can live up to 2000 years or more, they might have thought that cutting was from a tree that might have been alive when Jesus walked and taught on the Mount,” Dr Guenther added.

Prime Minister Imran Khan recently launched the ‘Protective Areas Initiative’. Among other sites, the initiative accords protected national park status to Sheikh Badin. An oasis perched atop a hill and lying between Bannu (N), Lakki Marwat (W), Mianwali (E) and Dera Ismail Khan (S), Imran Khan flew over it in a helicopter in 2014 and reckoned it had great promise for ecotourism.

This hill station has surviving remnants of a Christian cemetery, ruins of a chapel, mission house, club house, racquets court, post office, military barracks and rain harvesting ponds.

An extract from the personal memoir of Leslie Mallam, who visited Sheikh Badin as DC Kohat in 1927, notes: “In the year 1927, when I was in the neighbourhood, this little summer station had long been deserted. Fine roads and motor cars made it possible to send families away to the lush, green valleys of Kashmir. One summer in the heat of July, I determined to climb the hill, and spend a night or two in the cool clean air on top. Setting out before dawn, I reached the crest about lunchtime, and after a breather began to explore the strange, empty hilltop world, so full of the ghosts of English mothers and children.” (L Mallam – Thirty Years on the NWF; Recollections of a Frontiersman) Faisal Amin Khan Gandapur, MPA from DIK, has identified other olive trees growing on the Sheikh Badin hillside. He shared his views: “Morphologically speaking they appear to be 100-150 years old and are probably offspring of the original tree brought by the 19th century missionary. We are in the process of getting them dated accurately by horticulture experts using scientific means.”

Sheikh Badin’s inclusion in PM’s Protective Areas Initiative will prove a boon for tourism in general, particularly heritage, adventure and ecotourism in the region, the MPA hoped.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2020