LAHORE: The Lahore Museum is establishing an exclusive gallery under the title, Sikh Gallery, featuring Sikh-era artifacts. It will be inaugurated early next month.

The gallery is almost ready with a few works left, such as labelling of artifacts. The museum officials claim that it will be a new gallery at the museum.

A good number of Sikhs visit Pakistan every year to take part in religious rituals at their sacred sites in different cities of the country, including Lahore. The Lahore Museum is establishing this gallery for the Sikhs as well as other visitors.

Currently, the new gallery is shut for the public since the setting up of artifacts and labeling process is going on. It will be open for the public after the inauguration.

“This gallery is being established to promote religious tourism, interfaith harmony and a soft image of Pakistan,” Lahore Museum Director Ajaz Ahmed Minhas told Dawn.

Mr Minhas said the Sikh visitors also gave their valuable suggestions regarding their artifacts at the museum. He said on Sept 1, a Sikh delegation visited the museum for the Prakash ritual, the installation of Guru Granth Sahib.

To this question about the artifacts at the Sikh Gallery, Mr Minhas said most of the artifacts had been donated by the Faqir family of Lahore.

The gallery, he explained, was a general gallery having Sikh artifacts as well as those from other places like China etc; however, it had now been solely dedicated to the Sikh gallery with only Sikh artifacts. He said the original chair from Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s court was also a part of the gallery along the other artifacts, including Guru Granth Sahib, weapons, furniture, portraits of Sikh gurus, letters, Sanskrit books, robes and paintings, including that of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

A permanent gallery for the Sikhs at the museum was inaugurated by the then minister for culture Mian Aslam Iqbal in November 2019 also after an exhibition of the Sikh artifacts. However, the officials say there were artifacts from other regions of the world too in the Sikh gallery, which have been removed from it now and it has become an exclusive gallery of Sikh artifacts.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2021