Rawalpindi - Taxila, Part 2

Tour date: July 2010

I wish to touch a little bit on the ancient city of Taxila in part 2 of 2 of my tour. Taxila illustrates a different stages in the city developments on the Indus that was mostly influenced by Persia, Greece and Central Asia. The city became an important Buddhist centre of learning from the 5th century BC to the 2nd century AD.  

July was a hot summer month in Pakistan and the heat can easily be felt in Rawalpindi. Lucky for us that the car can be parked so near to the ruin site. The archaeological sites provides seat for the tourist to rest and hide from the hot summer sun under the shades of trees within the compound. Nominal entrance fee was paid when we visited the museum. 

Taxila is a vast ruin complex which includes a Mesolithic cave, 4 settlement sites namely, Saraidala, Bhir, Sirkap and sirsukh, a number of Buddhist monasteries of various periods and the Muslim mosque and madrasas of the medieval period. Below photo was taken with the driver who was kind enough to carry my backpack at 1 of the Buddhist monastery.

Taxila is one of the important archaeological sites in Pakistan. 18 of its sites are on UNESCO World Heritage list. The city dates back to the ancient Gandharan city of Takshashila, an important Vedic/Hindu and Buddhist center of learning. The Buddhism travelled to the far east from this region. The Persians, Greeks under Alexander the Great, Central Asians (Tamerlane the Great and his descendants) and Hindus (Asoka) all subsequently left their mark in their attempt to conquer the world.

I was trying a meditation post by those ancient Buddha disciples on their meditation trees in below photo. Though it's hot, a strong wind on that day added pleasure and comfort to our long walks. 

A closer view inside the ruin Jaulian monastery.

The main ruins of Taxila are divided into 3 major cities, each belonging to a distinct time period. The oldest is the "Hathial" area dated between 6th century BC to the late 2nd millennium BC. The second city is located at Sirkap and was built by Greco Bactrian kings in the 2nd century BC. The last city of Taxila is at Sirsukh which relates to the Kushan Kings.  

In addition to the ruins city, a number of a Buddhist monasteries and stupas also belong to the Taxila area. Some of the important ruins of this category include the ruins of the stupa at Dharmarajika, built by Maurya emperor, Asoka. According to local custom, bone and tooth fragments from the Buddha were buried. This monastery also possessed a Greek style statue of Aphrodite which was unearthed. 

After a visit to Dharmarajika, we also visited the monastery at Jaulian, the monastery at Mohra Muradu in addition to a number of stupas. 

There is little shade at Taxila and may be very hot depending on the month of your arrival. Hence, bring water, a hat and a sunblock to cover yourself from the heat stroke. However, some spots is rich in greenery with fountains. 

Rawalpindi - Taxila, Part 1

Tour date: July 2010

Since we were already in Rawalpindi and after finishing the tour at Gurdwara Panji Sahib, we headed to Taxila Museum and later to it's nearby Archaelogical site. Taxila is a place for remembrances of the most famous Hindu Emperor, Asoka. I came to know about him while watching a fictional movie about him with Shahrukh Khan as a leading actor in 2007. In case you never heard anything about Asoka before, please click to the link here "The fictional film of Asoka's Life". 

First and foremost, Taxila is a town and an important archaeological site in the Rawalpindi district of the Punjab province in Northern Pakistan. It is situated about 32km northwest of Islamabad capital territory, just off the famous Grand Trunk Road. It was part of India before the partition. The construction of Taxila museum started in 1918 and was completed 10 years later. It was opened for public by Sir Habibullah, the then Education minister of British India. Later in 1998, the Government of Pakistan constructed the northern gallery. 

With a tip of Rs100 the museum assistant allowed me to shoot numerous photos of about 4000 objects displayed, including stone, stucco, terracotta, silver, gold, iron and semi precious stones. The displayed objects are mainly the objects found the ruin Taxila complex from 500 BC to 600 BC. The objects represents the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain religions found in the ancient cities and more than 2 dozen Buddhist stupas and monasteries including the Greek temple. Those photos were all gone in my crashed hard disk, so what was left in this entry were the one save in Nahran's facebook.

The 1 that left and found is the above photo of me with the "tug tug" outside the museum and a green scenery of the entrance to the museum.

After we had enough of exploration inside the museum, we went straight to the archaeological site @ Taxila valley, among others we visited the Jaulian, ancient Buddhist monastery and another monastery in Dharmarajika Stupa.

The people in the photos with me were among a great friends who I found along my journey of which we managed to form a small friendship over a shortest time ever. I'm truly bless.

to be continued....

Rawalpindi - Gurdwara Panja Sahib

Tour date: July 2010

During one of my return trip to Pakistan for official duty after mobilisation to the headquarters, I visited our client in Islamabad for settlement of the final account. We normally will stay at our IJM concrete guest house in Bahria Town, one of the modest housing area in town. As it was nearly weekend, I extended my stay by touring Islamabad and Rawalpindi cities with Nahran. 

Nahran took along his friend who is more familiar with tourist attraction in Northern Pakistan as he was spending quite a long time studied medicine. He mentioned about the Gurdwara Panja Sahib which is famously visited due to a rock believed to have a printed hand of the Sikhism founder, Guru Nanak, the 1st guru of 12. Twice a year the Sikhs will visit this gurdwara. Gurdwara is punjabi word for "Gateway to the Guru" is the place of worship and mostly it's architecture resembles a mosque. Gurdwara Panja Sahab is located at Hasan Abdal, 48km from Rawalpindi established in 1870. 

Gurdwara entrance gate

This holy and revered place was named Panja Sahib by Hari Singh Nalwa, the most famous general of the Sikhs Kingdom. He is credited with having built the first gurdwara at this place. During the British Punjab, the management of Panja Sahib went into the Hindu hands but at presence it was managed by the volunteer group.

The gurdwara was built with a series of water features around to remark a story of Guru Nanak and a local saint, Hazrat Shah Wali Qandhari. During meditation atop of nearby hill, Guru Nanak had annoyed the Wali and when he sent his disciple to seek for water from the Wali, the request was turned down. Thus, Guru Nanak had placed his hand on a nearby rock resulted a fresh spring water flowing to quench the thirst.

We were not allowed to enter the gurdwara, so, I do not had an opportunity to witness Guru Nanak hand  printed on the rock as believed. But the view of the outside gurdwara are really breathtaking. 

Guru Nanak was born in April in 1469 near Lahore, Pakistan. At 30 years old, when he returned from 3 days disappearance (believed drowned in a river), he broke his silence by saying "There is neither Hindu nor Mussulman (Muslim), so whose path shall I follow? I shall follow God's path. God is neither Hindu nor Mussulman and the path which I follow is God's". Thereafter, Guru Nanak traveled to places far and wide teaching people the message of one God (monotheist) who dwells in every one of  God's creations and constitutes the eternal truth. 

Let us all start questioning our self "Who are we to judge?".