Fwd: ‘Swat sacred home of leading nations’

[Guest guest]

gandhara , " ymalaiya " <ymalaiya wrote:

 

Staff Report

 

SWAT: Swat has been the ‘sacred home’ of all the leading nations,

such as the Indus Valley, Vedic, Achaemenian, Buddhist, Hindu and

Islamic civilisations, said Prof Dr Farooq Swati, the Chairman of

the University of Peshawar’s Archaeology Department. He was

addressing a 3-day international symposium on ‘the Latest

Discoveries in the Cultural Heritage of ancient Gandhara and other

parts of Pakistan’ in Swat, organised by the department and the

Gandhara Art and Cultural Association (GACA). He said that the event

aimed to highlight the latest discoveries and to promote research.

The valley’s rich culture, he said, shows that the exchange of

ideas, experiences and productive cultural values brings harmony and

dynamism.

 

Fifty-eight national and sixteen international delegates attended

the seminar. Hiroshi Azuma, the Japanese Deputy High Commissioner to

Pakistan, also paid a short visit to the conference. Dr Abdur

Rehman, a senior GACA member, said that the Gandhara Civilisation

had conquered more than half of the world ‘spiritually and

politically’.

 

Dr Muhammad Nasim Khan elaborated the recent Gandhara excavations at

Kashmir Smast in Mardan. He talked about the Shivite monastic

establishment and the goddess Lajja Gauri, illustrating with

sculptural, currency, and epigraphic slides. Prof Fidaullah Sehrai,

a renowned scholar on the Buddhist Civilisation, praised the

decision to hold the seminar in Swat. He said Swat was an important

Buddhist centre and that the event would allow the national and

international scholars to get a feel for the flavour of the Gandhara

and Uddiyana topography.

 

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_5-9-2005_pg7_41

 

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