LAHORE: The Lahore Museum, after a long time, has displayed the artifacts from its ethnological gallery featuring cultural artifacts from across Pakistan, including Gilgit Baltistan, Sawat, Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, Blochistan, Sindh and Punjab, with an objective to transmit information regarding cultural heritage of these regions to the visitors.

According to museum Director Ijaz Ahmad Minhas, inauguration of the gallery, which represents different cultures of Pakistan, will be held in the near future.

The first section of the gallery features artifacts from Swat, including a wooden prayer mat, a wooden bowl, a candle stand and Swati embroidery.

There are other artifacts as well that reflect rich Swati culture and traditions.

The northern areas section showcases interesting artifacts which include a traditional Kohistani shawl, wooden utensils and an apricot wood box. The prominent artifacts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa section include wooden shoes, traditional dresses, shawls, traditional bangles, hand fan, a traditional Balochi Kurta and other such artifacts.

Ijaz Ahmad Minhas says the Balochistan section has traditional Balochi dresses, embroidery, shoes and jewellery having rare and expensive stones.

South Punjab and Dera Ghazi Khan areas have their own section with many unique and rare traditional objects such as embroidered pillow covers having mirror work on them and traditional dresses, which include shawls and Kurtas.

Similar artifacts are there in sections of Sindh, Punjab, Kashmir and Kailash. The museum director says the gallery is an attempt to highlight tradition and culture of different areas of the country.

He adds the gallery is being exhibited online and on the museum’s social media, saying that through such a gallery the soft image of the country is being spread.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2022