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PM highlights Pakistan’s potential for Buddhist tourism

  • October 18, 2021

Prime Minister Imran Khan highlighted on Monday Pakistan’s potential in Buddhist tourism.

He took to the Twitter to share an image of a 2,000-year old iconic Swat Buddha, saying the sculpture was “one of the largest rock engravings of Buddha, located in Jahan Abad, Swat”.

Carved on a granite cliff in the 7th Century, the Buddha of Swat is seated in meditative posture and it was restored to almost its original splendor with the Italian government’s assistance, after it was damaged by terrorists.

The prime minister has long been striving to exploit the country’s immense potential in tourism, which he believed could even support the country in repaying its entire foreign debt.

In Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone there are at least 150 Buddhist heritage sites. Such sites also abound in much of the Pakistan’s north and northwest, including Mingora and the Swat valley, which was once a major center for early Buddhist development. Takht-e-Bahi area is also home to various Budhist hsorical sites and relics.

Buddhist era sites also date back from the Mauryan kingdom of Ashoka and the indo-Greek Buddhist period of the Kushan empire.

There are Buddhist sites in Gilgit-Baltistan too.

In Sindh too, there are a number of Budhist sites, including at Brahmanabad in the Sanghar district as well as Mohen-jo-daro, Sirah-ji-takri, Rohri and Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah and Dadu.

There are over 50 archaeological sites scattered in a radius of 30 km around Taxila, which was once Gandhara’s seat of power. Such sites are also found in Jinan Wali Dheri.

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/news/2021/10/pm-highlights-pakistans-potential-for-buddhist-tourism/

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