ISLAMABAD, March 9: Eminent scholar and art historian, Dr Ahmed Hassan Dani, led a large group of schoolchildren on a trip to the Barri Imam shrine.

Dr Dani has an innate ability to reach out to children and they too seemed to be absorbing everything the scholar had to tell them.

In a light mood, Dr Dani made them laugh yet enrich their knowledge about the history of this heritage site in Islamabad.

Dr Dani informed the children that Sufi saint Barri Imam’s real name was Shah Abdul Latif.

“Do you know what ‘Barri’ means?” he asked the children. It means ‘forest,’ since Barri Imam, who was born in 1617, lived for many years in the forests of Hazara and Margalla Hills, meditating, he told the children.

The children were also very surprised to know that many years ago there was a Shiva temple near the shrine but it was not existing now. This place was also very sacred for the Hindus.

The children inquired about the main banyan tree and asked Dr Dani about its importance. He told them that all Sufi shrines had an old banyan tree and the one at the shrine was perhaps over 800 years old.

Near the shrine was an important caravanserai but it was demolished in the ‘70s. In the ‘80s, during Ziaul Haq’s so-called Islamisation, the shrine lost its mystique when its surrounding area was bulldozed and a great number of trees were felled. Luckily, the main banyan and some the other old trees were spared.

An amount of Rs600 million has been allocated for the renovation of the Barri Imam shrine, which will start very soon.

The proposed design of the shrine does not include the trees that are growing there at present.

Old banyan trees, as Dr Dani informed the children, are an integral feature of Sufi shrines and any renovation that will remove this natural beauty from the shrine and replaces it with lifeless concrete will negate the philosophy of Sufism.

The director of the Barri Imam Project has assured that this oversight in the design would be addressed. According to Sohail Urfani of the CDA, who will be overseeing the work, planters would be placed around the trees at least at a circumference of seven feet away from the base of the trunk.

The CDA would be doing a great service to the people of Islamabad by preserving and protecting the heritage sites of Islamabad, as already much damage has been done to other heritage sites in the capital territory.

The trip was jointly organised by the Archaeological and Historical Association and Funkor Childart Centre to promote appreciation of the rich cultural heritage of Islamabad among children.

The cultural caravan will take children from various schools to other sites too. For the children of Bloomfield Hall School it was an extremely memorable and educative trip. What can be more enriching than a trip to an historical site with none other that the respected Dr Dani.—Fauzia Minnallah