~ Vaishali Basu Sharma ~
Pakistan has been making efforts to highlight its Buddhist heritage and position itself as a hub for Buddhist tourism and cultural preservation. But the harsh reality is that the last surviving, practicing Buddhists in Pakistan are facing extinction due to the unavailability of worship places, religious teaching and government patronage.
By projecting regions like Gandhara, Taxila, and Swat Valley, which were major centres of Buddhist art, and culture, and renowned for their Greco-Buddhist. In this context, the Gandhara Corridor Bill, 2024 was introduced in the National Assembly of Pakistan by Member National Assembly (MNA) Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani. The bill aims to establish the Gandhara Corridor to connect Pakistan with the Buddhist world highlighting the 2,500-year-old Gandhara civilization in the northern part of present-day Pakistan, and proposes the establishment of a high-level statutory body to ensure facilitation and support at the federal level for provinces and administrative units.
While this may be an interesting approach to create a common cause with Pakistan-friendly Asian countries having large Buddhist populations, it completely ignores the historical reality of the decline of Buddhism in Pakistan because of persecution which began around the 6th century and continued under the Muslim regimes.
The Pakistani government’s actions with regard to Buddhism often paint a misleading picture to the international community. They organize events such as Buddhist monk tours, Varsa Vassa, and the Gandhara Symposium to showcase their commitment to the preservation of Buddhist heritage sites. However, these activities often amount to little more than token gestures meant to distract from the harsh realities on the ground.
A black day for peace-loving people everywhere especially for Buddhists around the world was March 2, 2001, when the Taliban initiated the destruction of two 6th-century monumental Buddhist statues in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan, a holy site for Buddhists on the Silk Road. It cannot be ignored that Pakistani engineers were involved in the destruction of the majestic Buddhas of Bamiyan.
Since the 2nd century CE, Bamiyan had been a Buddhist religious site on the Silk Road under the Kushans, remaining so until the Islamic conquests of 770 CE. Even Genghis Khan who invaded the Bamiyan Valley in 1221, wiping out most of its population left the Bamiyan Buddhas undamaged.
But even before the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, in Pakistan’s Swat valley, the Buddhist stupas and carvings in Jehan Abad were dynamited by local radical groups. The Buddha statue in Jehan Abad was the largest rock carving in the world after the statues of Bamiyan.
Other Buddhist sites in Pakistan like the stupas at the Takht Bhai ruins, have either been defaced or fallen into complete disrepair.
Seri Bahlol, a significant centre of the Gandhara Buddhist heritage in Mardan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan has been ruined by illegal constructions and illicit excavations without any action being taken by the government. Despite Seri Bahlol’s inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1980, preservation efforts have been insufficient to protect the site from ongoing threats. The local population’s involvement in illegal excavations, siphoning Buddhist antiquities to dealers, has further exacerbated the situation. Houses have been constructed along the foundation of this historical Buddhist fortified town built during the Kushan period. In several places, the villagers had picked out stones from the wall to construct their own houses. Parts of the wall are buried under heaps of garbage thrown from the houses built over the wall.
The tragedy of these ancient Buddhist structures in Pakistan is that most of the villagers in Sri Behlol are confident that they are earning money as well as Sawab (blessings of God) by digging out the “remnants of infidels” and selling them in the market. They are performing a religious duty, they believe.
The reality is that the vast majority of Muslim Pakistan, a country that was created 77 years ago, has no interest in exploring beyond the arrival of Arab armies in the Indian subcontinent in 712 CE, which marked the start of the Muslim period in this region. Present-day Pakistan has been struggling to keep its diverse ethnicities, including Punjabis, Sindhis, Balochis, Pashtuns, and Seraikis united by using the religion of Islam as a glue. To help highlight the Islamic character of the otherwise diverse Pakistani society, pre-Islamic history was replaced with the arrival of Islam in the 8th century CE in history lessons.
In October 2021, a a five-member delegation of Buddhists from Naushahro Feroze District in the province of Sindh discovered to their shock that Pakistan’s last remaining Buddhist communities are in danger of extinction due to a lack of places to worship, religious teachers, and government support, even as the government was trying to explore “Pakistan’s Buddhist and Jain Histories” exhibition organised by the provincial government of Punjab. They noted that the future of Buddhism in Pakistan did not look encouraging: “…, the religion [Buddhism] in Pakistan is on the verge of extinction due to different reasons,” said Lala Muneer, head of the delegation. The handful of Buddhists in Pakistan live in Sindh Province and areas such as the Rohi region of South Punjab. And even these few could not practice their religious rites because there were no temples or stupas. “We perform our rituals, events, and festivals at our homes,” Muneer added.
Local officials proudly changed the name of one Buddhist historical site in Swat from Buth Kada (a place of statues/idols) to Gul Kada (a place of flowers). When asked the reason, a local responded with a sarcastic smile, “We Pakistanis are in the practice of Islamizing everything.”
In present-day Pakistan, security concerns in certain regions have posed challenges to the preservation and promotion of Buddhist heritage. The contemporary Buddhist population in Pakistan is quite small, with most followers concentrated in Sindh and Punjab. Taxila is facing challenges that threaten its preservation due to illegal excavations, modern development, and lack of proper management.
Pakistan today has a negligible Buddhist population, close to zero per cent. This dramatic decline is not due to natural demographic shifts but is rather a consequence of persecution, discrimination, and violence against Buddhists. The dwindling Buddhist community in Pakistan reflects a tragic reality of how religious extremism has succeeded in eradicating a once-thriving religious and cultural group. Many Buddhists who remain in Pakistan live in fear for their safety and have been forced to conceal their religious identity.
In recent years, as part of the devolution of power, Pakistan’s federal government has transferred the authority of the Department of Archaeology and Museums to the provincial governments. But for the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the maintenance and preservation of over 2,000 Gandhara Buddhist archaeological sites is the least of its concerns. As such stealing and smuggling of artifacts or damaging the historical sites continues unabated. Of the 2,000 sites, several have disappeared while many others, such as Sri Behlol, have forcefully been occupied by locals. Of the 21 “protected sites” registered with the archaeology and museum department in Swat, “five of those sites do not exist at all now.”
It is time that the world community registers its outrage against such destruction of cultural treasures in Pakistan. The government’s deceptive actions, such as organizing tours, symposiums and talk about the Gandhara Corridor, cannot hide the harsh realities. If the world does not act this time, it risks losing one of the most precious legacies of early Buddhist history.
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