{"id":617,"date":"2015-11-20T17:05:28","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T17:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morningpost.today\/eng\/?p=617"},"modified":"2015-11-20T17:10:14","modified_gmt":"2015-11-20T17:10:14","slug":"crumbling-state-of-gandhara-heritage-needs-govts-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/crumbling-state-of-gandhara-heritage-needs-govts-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Crumbling state of Gandhara heritage needs govt’s attention"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

MINGORA: Lying at the foot of a narrow vale, the Tokar-Dara stupa, a first century Buddhist monument, is crumbling down and needs immediate attention of the government and archaeology department.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nestled against the foot of two mountains, Tokar-Dara valley is about five kilometres away from the city of Barikot, formerly known as Bazira, to the south in Najigram valley.<\/p>\n

The Buddhist complex belonging to the first and third century AD, according to archaeologists, were constructed when Buddhism was at its peak in Uddiyana.<\/p>\n

Robbed by antique dealers and smugglers, the site is one of the beautiful ancient sites in Swat, encompassing huge area of Buddhist monastery, stupa, assembly hall, cave, aqueduct and residential settlements.<\/p>\n

The archaeological importance and scenic beauty of the site leaves the visitors dumbfounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe site presents a picture of unique ancient structures, different from other Buddhist sites,\u201d said Niaz Ahmad Khan, a visitor to the site. He added that the site was a tourist heaven where natural beauty and heritage mingled.<\/p>\n

The Buddhist site, according to the known record, was first mentioned by Hungarian-British archaeologist Aurel Stein, who visited it in March 1926. Mentions the site in his book \u2018On the Alexander\u2019s track\u00a0to the Indus: Personal Narrative of Exploration on the North-West Frontier of India\u2019, published in 1929, he says: \u201cI visited another big Buddhist site, quite as picturesque which lies in a small wooded dale opposite to Najigram village which is known as Tokar-Dara. Being more easily accessible it has suffered more damage at human hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he narrates an important discovery of a reservoir, unique of its kind, saying but this was amply compensated by the interesting discovery of an elaborately constructed barrage work, immediately bellow the big stupa. \u201cIt was obviously intended to secure a permanent supply of water,\u201d he points out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time I found evidence that the reservoir had also been planned for the supply of systematic irrigation to the terraced fields bellow. It is the first example of so far known to me on the Frontier of an ancient engineering work designed for this double purpose,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

According to Dr Luca Maria Olivieri, the Director Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan, Tokar-Dara stupa was founded\u00a0in the first century CE and was abandoned probably around the fourth-sixth century.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an important Buddhist sacred site having four columns, as that of the Saidu Sharif stupa, and also for its central gigantic niche as that of Amlukdara stupa,\u201d he told Dawn, adding that its importance revealed by the surrounding monuments, the monastery and the monastic residences that ran all along the valley to the west of the stupa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe site displays an enchanting merger between nature and architecture where the few ruins that have withstood the test of time still create a link with the landscape; they are the remains of a heritage which must not only be acknowledged but also enhanced,\u201d said Dr Maria Grazia Turco, associate professor at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy in her article, \u2018The Buddhist Site of Tokar Dara 1 (Swat, Pakistan), Building Techniques in the Ancient Gandhara\u2019.<\/p>\n

Faizur Rahman, the curator of Swat Museum, said that land of the site was Swat state property before 1969 but later on some influential people of the area occupied it and moved court against the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court gave verdict in favour of the influential people. We then filed case against the decision in high court where the case is going on,\u201d he said, adding that until the court decision no further work could be done at the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fazal Khaliq\u00a0 MINGORA: Lying at the foot of a narrow vale, the Tokar-Dara stupa, a first century Buddhist monument, is crumbling down and needs immediate attention of the government and archaeology department. Nestled against the foot of two mountains, Tokar-Dara valley is about five kilometres away from the city of Barikot, formerly known as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[153,152,151],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617"}],"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=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":620,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions\/620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morningpostnews.pk\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}