The book shelves, book stores and other part of the production units are full of history and heritage books written by the archaeologists, historians, Geographists are the assets of the nation. Now it’s our turn how the messages and knowledge can be delivered to the youth and society. Why history? Because the nation grows up to learn from the story and history of the past of his/her ancestors. Where we may find some varieties of story like “Alexander the Great” traveled through Gandhara civilization and invaded Taxila in 326 BCE.
What specialties were in the personality and why everybody exclaim with their talks taking his name? There are hidden truths back on the background which has never been tried to explore and adapt the quality of his leadership to use that model which still exist. Many historians and writers talk about Buddhism and Gandhara civilization but none apart from them initiated to explore and find why the richest religion has got the ridge of praise in the world in the 5th and 6th centuries.
Recently a series of tour was initiated by the an inbound tour operator “Karakorum Trekking (Pvt) Ltd” to explore the heritages of the sites with the well-known archaeologist, researcher and author Dr. A.G. Lone to visit the expatriates and visitors from the globe to tell them the facts with figure. All these sites have excavated but still 97% of the areas in Taxila has not been excavated due to negligence and fund had never been allocated by the government and international NGOs. This series need to be continued with the professional tour guides who have the depth knowledge of Buddism, Gandhara civilization and artifacts. Also to know the language of Gandhara Parakrit used to spoke and it was written in Kharoshti script. It was originate from Aramaic and used as official language. The old city Bhirmound is still existing but not fully excavated, Srikap City and Darmarajika are the best site of the heritage. Each site and stupa has it own beauty and artifacts. Srikap City was build according to the “Hippodamain” grid-plan characteristic of Greek city.
When Sir John Marshal start working on the archaeological sites, 1902 in Indian with the help of the Government and stake holders. He recognized the Indian Archaeology survey and wonderfully expanded the scope of the activities in that rich areas. But the first task was to make the conservation and save the sculptures, temples, paintings and other remains in the area protecting them from damaging. His dedication, passionate work resulted to preserve the antiques in British India. Today we use his name because of his wisdom and visionary work he did when the people were in the dark and they had no ideas about its importance and potential. Taxila is one of the best site of Gandhara civilization in modern Pakistan.
Out of 7 largest Heritage sites two are in Pakistan, Takht-e-Bhai the indo Parthian archaeology and Taxila is the Gandhara. According to Indian archaeological survey this civilization flourished from 2500-1750 BC and moved to China, Korea and Japan. The pilgrims will visit and they need to facilitate according to their demand which is far-flung because such sites have never explored or encouraged which has a huge and great potential. After Sir Johan Marshals departure the excavation work has been poorly ignored and still there is not such strategies from the government to make a short, medial and long term mechanism to expand the excavation work. Which will be the modern city of great Gandhara civilization. There is not an exact figure about the population but the researcher believe that if the cremation made the area possible for the existing generation. Otherwise we could find to make things happen due to lack of space.
These sites must be designed with planned engineering to welcome tourism in Pakistan showing them and tell them the history of these region. Services of the hotel, transportation, restaurant and water spots need to be developed with modern facilities to convert the archaeological site into economic opportunity through all effective tools. Such tours must have its wrath to attract the local as well to visit and learn about 2000-4000 old civilization where their way of living was planned, moderate and full of art. Buddha always search for peace and enlightenment so we should make the earth for peace by his philosophy and wisdom.