{"id":61,"date":"2015-07-15T15:58:19","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T15:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morningpost.today\/eng\/?p=61"},"modified":"2015-09-15T16:02:27","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T16:02:27","slug":"swats-rock-carvings-need-immediate-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/swats-rock-carvings-need-immediate-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Swat\u2019s rock carvings need immediate attention"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Fazal Khaliq\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

MINGORA: Surrounded by peaceful yet mysterious blackish mountains, the lush green Arab Khan Cheena valley in Swat is known for possessing relics of Gandhara civilisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The valley located at the end of Batkara Road in the suburbs of Mingora was once a flourishing Buddhist area.<\/p>\n

Noted among the relics are rock carved statues and stupas, which conjure up the glorious past of the kingdom of Uddiyana, ancient name of Swat.<\/p>\n

Besides taking fascinating traditional route, visitors can also go there via Panr and Dangram villages.<\/p>\n

The site is in bad shape due to the neglect of authorities and lack of public awareness.<\/p>\n

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Visitors lament lack of proper information about Arab Khan Cheena valley<\/h4>\n
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According to archaeologists, the site was first discovered by Aurel Stein. It was documented by Giuseppe Tucci in 1955 and 1956, studied by Domenico Faccenna, Pierfrancesco Callieri, Luca M Olivieri and Anna Filigenzi. Lastly, the site was visited by Badshah Sardar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith six stupas and eight rock carvings, the area offers a unique environment to understand the 7th century Buddhist context, which, despite being widely narrated by a deluge of rock carvings,\u201d said Dr Luca Maria Olivieri, head of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

He, however, lamented lack of proper archaeological information about the site.<\/p>\n

On high ground near a spring are eight rock carvings.<\/p>\n

Slightly upstream from the \u2018relief zone\u2019 near the ridge of the Sharara range stand the ruins of six stupas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s lovely to see this small valley near Mingora. It is beautiful and historical. If you stand in the middle of the area, you will find many rocks, small and big engravings,\u201d said Shaista Hakeem, a local tourist.<\/p>\n

The site is rarely visited by tourists, who find it one of the best archaeological places in Swat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got happy and sad at the same time when I saw the Buddhist carvings in Arab Khan Cheena. I was angry at the neglect of the authorities and happy to know about the area\u2019s glorious past,\u201d said Shehla Anjum, a Pakistani American writer, who lives in Alasaka.<\/p>\n

The writer, who has a special affinity for Swat and visited it several times, said old carvings, many of them on big rocks, were tumbling down and thus, slowly disappearing.<\/p>\n

She also regretted people had grown crops on the archeological site. \u201cA few rock faces have visible carvings, but deteriorating from the ravages of weather as well as neglect. I looked in disbelief at a rock statue of Buddha, which was weathered and forlorn. Ironically, there was animal dung at its base,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A farmer has a rock carving in his compound.<\/p>\n

He said he was poor and couldn\u2019t do much except for warding off vandals.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the area is being converted into a residential area amid fears the archeological site will be encroached upon in future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not know why the government and relevant departments are not taking interest in the site\u2019s preservation. I fear these relics will soon disappear erasing an important chapter of history,\u201d said Usman Ulasyar, chairman of Suvastu Arts and Culture Association, Swat.<\/p>\n

When contacted, curator of Swat museum and in charge of the Swat archaeological sites Faizur Rehman said currently, the provincial government was in the process of acquiring land of 12 other archaeological sites in Swat.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we complete the land acquiring exercise, work to preserve Arab Khan Cheena site will begin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fazal Khaliq\u00a0 MINGORA: Surrounded by peaceful yet mysterious blackish mountains, the lush green Arab Khan Cheena valley in Swat is known for possessing relics of Gandhara civilisation. The valley located at the end of Batkara Road in the suburbs of Mingora was once a flourishing Buddhist area. Noted among the relics are rock carved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,12],"tags":[33,34,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions\/63"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}