Lahore, Badshahi Mosque

Tour date: October 2011
Badshahi Mosque and it's surrounding attraction

The Badshahi Mosque or the 'King's Mosque', commissioned by the sixth Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1671 and completed in 1673, is the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world. Epitomising the beauty, passion and grandeur of the Mughal era, it is Lahore's most famous landmark and a major tourist attraction.

Capable of accommodating 5,000 worshippers in its main prayer hall and a further 95,000 in its courtyard and porticoes, it remained the largest mosque in the world from 1673 to 1986 (a period of 313 years), when overtaken in size by the completion of the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. Today, it remains the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world after the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca, the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca and the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

The interior finishes of mimbar hall having similar decorations with Taj Mahal. I took many shoots at the Main Prayer Hall which is divided into seven sections by means of multi-foil arches supported on heavy piers, three of which bear the double domes finished externally in white marble. The remaining four sections are roofed with flat domes. The interior of Main Prayer Hall is richly embellished with stucco tracery (Manbatkari), fresco work and inlaid marble.

"If I could dream to have a grandeur hall just like the way where I was standing above, in my own home, I would be smiling throughout the sleep. Even when I awake I could have for the record those dream in my camera :)". That was on my silly thought for sometimes now. 

I took assistance from the PC hotel driver (sat with me in above photo) to capture a photo of me with Minar-e-Pakistan from the Badshahi Mosque. The outstanding minar was constructed in 1960, completed in 1968 with a roof height of 62 metres @ 203ft. A minaret, located in Iqbal Park Lahore was built in commemoration of the Lahore Resolution. The minaret reflects a blend of Mughal and modern architecture, and is constructed on the site where on March 23, 1940, seven years before the formation of Pakistan, the Muslim League passed the Pakistan Resolution, demanding the creation of Pakistan. Interestingly, the site is also where Nehru and the Indian National Congress declared Indian independence from Britain in 1929.

Another beautiful building seated within the area is the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh is the mausoleum of the Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It is located near the Lahore Fort and Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan. Construction was started by his son, Kharak Singh on the spot where he was cremated, and was completed by his youngest son, Duleep Singh in 1848. As I rushed back to the hotel to check out and had my lunch, I decided to skip the tour in detail inside the mausoleum. Suffice with below photo evidencing my visit.

The architecture and design of the Badshahi Mosque closely resembles that of the smaller Jama Mosque in Delhi, India, which was built in 1648 by Aurangzeb's father and predecessor, Emperor Shah Jahan. Its design was inspired by Islamic, Persian, Central Asian and Indian influences. Like the character of its founder, the Mosque is bold, vast and majestic in its expression. I wishes to share more photos of the mosque as it was too beautiful to keep it intact inside my Mcbook. Hope you shall enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed taking each one of them.

It's not only a resemblance of Jama Masjid of Delhi, but a Taj Mahal. What I can concluded is that everything in here is just another piece of art and great architecture vision of Emperor Shah Jahan.

Lahore, Wazir Khan Mosque & Golden Mosque

The PC Hotel Guest Relation Officer (GRO) had given my itinerary list to the driver who was assigned to complete my proposed tour list. As soon as I finished the tour inside the Lahore Museum, the driver told a story about the Walled City of Lahore on the way to Wazir Khan Mosque. Reason being, we had to go through the old gate of Delhi. Walled City of Lahore had 13 gates, Akbari Gate, Bhati Gate, Delhi Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Lohari Gate, Masti Gate, Mochi Gate, Mori Gate, Roshnai Gate, Shahalmi Gate, Shairanwala Gate, Taxali Gate and Yakki Gate. As he talked so fast, I had to get the gates reference names from Wikipedia. All 13 gates survived until the 19th century before the British demolished almost all except Roshnai Gate in their effort to defortify the city during the aftermath of 1857 Uprising, after the siege of Delhi. The same has been done by the British to the Walled City of Delhi but 5 out of 13 gates in Old Delhi survive today.

Some of the survived gates were rebuilt in a simple structures, except for Delhi Gate and Lohari Gate. Shahalmi Gate burnt to ground during the riots of 1947 while Akbari Gate was demolished for repairs but never built again. Today, out of 13, only Bhati Gate, Delhi Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Lohari Gate, Roshnai Gate, and Shairanwala Gate survive, yet many are in urgent need of repairs and restoration. To my surprise, a ride to Wazir Khan Mosque is through a busied market roads of old Lahore. According to the driver, the traffic will be hectic during prayer and at the evening times when all markets are in operation. As the mosque is located in the inner city, I tend to focus on the scene in below photo that is rarely for me to see in my hometown. I enjoyed them very much.

What I saw at the entrance of the gates was, an impressive high walls coated with plaster (chunam) and faced with a finely-soft quality of the same material tooled to a marble-like surface and coloured. All the external plasterwork was richly coloured a rich Indian red, in true fresco, and the surface afterwards picked out with white lines in the similitude of the small bricks beneath. The place was still very quite. The 2 gatekeepers did not charged any entrance fee. I was free to wander and to shoot as many pictures as I want.  

As soon as I stepped inside the Wazir Khan Mosque prayer courtyard I witnessed more of its famously extensive faience tile work. Faience is a conventional words for a fine tin-glazed potter on delicate puff of earthenware, invented in Iran and Middle East before the 9th century. It has been described as 'a mole on the cheek of Lahore'. The mosque was built in seven years, starting around 1634-1635 AD, during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan. It was built by Shaikh Ilm-ud-din Ansari, a native of Chiniot, who rose to be the court physician to Shah Jahan and later, the Governor of Lahore. He was commonly known as Wazir Khan. The word wazir means 'minister' in Urdu language.

107 ft height minaret (below photo), decorated with mosaic tiles.

Externally and internally, the mosque requires extensive restoration works to bring back its beautiful colors and past glory. The prayer hall was very quite, so, I sneak into imam's mimbar with a pang of guilt for a record of me and the fine arts of shishan wood by a skill craftsman, whoever he was. The mosque caretaker was sleeping peacefully. The Koranic verses was crafted on the wall of the prayer hall, very impressive scenery.

Golden Mosque is situated not far from Wazir Khan mosque. If not because of the PC hotel driver asked whether or not he should take me there, I wouldn't knew the existence of this historic grandeur mosque. We had to wait few minutes before the mosque caretaker, who was overseeing the mosque renovation, released the padlock. Quite saddened with the lack of its maintenance.

I thankful for your visit to my blog site and please enjoy the next entry of Badshahi Mosque, the Fort and Waqah Border. God bless us all!
 

Lahore Museum

Sandstone 2 storeyed Museum of Lahore, photo courtesy from Wikipedia website

Situated in the present location called "The Mall" since 1894 though the museum itself was established in 1864 at the Punjab Exhibition hall. The famous novelist, Rudyard Kipling's father was 1 of the curator in the museum.The museum is set in a Mughal-Gothic styled building, reflecting on the architectural heritage and modern history of Lahore. It is the biggest museum in the country. The building was co-designed by Lockwood Kipling and Sir Bhai Ram Singh, one of the leading architects of that time. It took 4 years for it's construction from the day the foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert Victor on 3rd February 1890. The museum was constructed as a memorial of Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria held in 1887, financed through a special public fund.

The Museum contains some fine specimens of Mughal and Sikh door-ways and wood-work and contains a large collection of paintings dating back to the Mughal, Sikh and British eras. It also has a collection of musical instruments, ancient jewellery, textiles, pottery and armory. There are relics from the Greco-Bactrian times as well as well as some Tibetan and Nepalese work. The museum has a number of objects of Greco-Buddhist sculptures, Mughal and Pahari paintings on display. The Fasting Buddha is one of the unique collections of the museum.

The 2 levels building displays archaeological material from pre-historic times to the Hindu Shahi period. It has 1 of the largest collections of archaeology, history, arts, fine arts, applied arts, ethnology and crafts objects found in many parts of Pakistan. It has an extensive collection of Hellenistic and Mughal coins. On the upper level, collections of arts and photo gallery is dedicated to the emerging of Pakistan as a state.

Emperor Aurangzeb

I'm always fond of the central Asia history and the historical building trademark left by numerous emperor under their ruling. When I first entered the museum, I was really impressed with its grand entrance, framed by a white marble portico of the picturesque of Anglo-Mughal ensemble. It's architecture expresses geometric purity in its formation of square corner cube-like towers surmounted by hemispherical domes. The domes provides an interesting interplay of lights and shades.

Internally, the museum presents 1 of the most architectural exciting spaces designed to set off the valuable displays. The museum is as much a must in view of its unique collection as it is for its architectural excellence. The museum displays some fine specimens of Mughal and Sikh door ways and wood works and has a big collection of paintings dating back to Indo-Pakistan, Mughal, Sikh and British times. It also boasts the finest example of the Gandhara sculpture, the masterpiece of Fasting Siddharta Gautama Buddha. Also on display are a collection of musical instruments, ancient jewellery, textile, poetry and armory like most of the museums are.

Guru Nanak and his vision of Golden Temple of Amritsar

The Sikh Holy Scripture "Guru Granth Sahib", its a resemblance of the Koran

It's important to note that the monotheistic religion of Sikhism founder, Guru Nanak is from Punjab. The Sikhism is founded in the 15th century became the 5th largest religion in the world. The 10th and the last Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh has declared that the final version of the Guru Granth Sahib is the official Khalsa Code of Conduct. The death of Guru Gobind Singh in the hand of Mughal assassin is indeed a very tragic event between the Muslim and the Sikh.

During 1 of my weekend in Delhi, I visited the museum which has many more collections and artifacts, however, all those photos gone, unrecoverable. I was saddened with the loss, and still am missing it :(

Lahore, City of Garden

Lahore is a beautiful city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Pakistan is a land full of conflicts, controversy and a unique characteristics. When I was working in Karachi, I never had any opportunity to visit Lahore due to a busy schedule, even during a weekend (Sunday Bazaar of Karachi not to be missed). However, during 1 of my official trip back to Pakistan in 2011, I made an effort to take a local flight from Karachi to Lahore in October 2011. It was a very short trip, 3 days 2 nights. 

Lahore is known in ancient time as lavapuri @ City of Lava, founded by Prince Lava, the son of Rama, the Hindu deity. It was called as City of Learning during Delhi Sultanate period. If Karachi is being called as City of Lights, Lahore is well known as City of Garden, at present, being the 2nd largest city in Pakistan (no. 30 in the world). In 2008, a dear friend that I called chotta bhai (younger brother) used to impress me with stories of his city that he would not trade with any other place in the world as it is the safest place, calm, serene and a reflection of a heaven on earth. He said to me “come to Lahore BB (elder sister), my whole family is waiting for you”. However, when I put a night at PC Lahore with list of places to visit, he was in Moscow for business trip. The PC Hotel arranged my tour within the city up to Waqah Border and I split the journal of Lahore into 6 entries.

Lahore has been a center of cultural heritage for many civilizations. It successively served as regional capital of the empires of the Shahi kingdoms in the 11th century, the Ghaznavids in the 12th century, the Ghurid State in the 12th and 13th century, the Mughal Empire in the 16th century, the Sikh expansion in the early 19th century, and it was the capital of the Punjab region under the British Raj in the mid 19th and early 20th century. Being a traditional capital of Punjab for a thousand years, Lahore was the cultural center of the northern part of the subcontinent which extends from the eastern banks of the Indus River to New Delhi. Mughal structures such as the Badshahi Mosque, the Lahore Fort, Shalimar Gardens, and the mausolea of Jehangir and Nur Jehan are popular tourist attractions for the city. Lahore is also home to many British colonial structures built in the Mughal-Gothic style, such as the Lahore High Court, the General Post Office, Lahore Museum and many older universities including the University of the Punjab. The Lahore Zoo, thought to be the fourth oldest zoo in the world, is also situated here.

It’s a pitiful that I missed out a visit to Shalimar garden and the Lahore Zoo due to hectic schedule and  a rush to catches a plane back to Karachi, late Sunday evening.

In the first entry of the blog, I wish to share some photo shoots of beautiful girls of Pakistani. They are all very shy with camera. As they are too pretty to be ignored, I had to sneak taking their pictures which are really colorful. It was Sunday, these pretty girls with their bright and colorful Salwar Kamees have brighten up a beautiful day in Badshahi Mosque. None of them wishes to have eye contact with my Nikon.

They were unable to escape my camera when we were cramped inside the golden Quran area, paying respect while a prayer being offered by golden Quran caretaker.

Finally, 1 of them was looking into my direction! Thank you pretty girl! Your golden Salwar Kamees really matches your strapless shoe and head scarf.

I found this 2 lovely ladies, working in Waqah Border who were more than willing when I asked them to give me a pose.

I wish to state that Pakistani ladies are all very pretty with their mix blood heritage of the natives, the Persian, the Moguls, the whites, the Aryans etc. I feel lacking in many ways :(