Dr Min Hee Sik, a Buddhist scholar, has said that Pakistan has great potential to attract tourists, especially Buddhists, because it has the oldest and largest Buddhist sites in the world.
Dr Min was speaking at a news conference-cum-lecture arranged in the city yesterday on “The Origin of Mahayana Buddhism and Art”. He was accompanied by an author Esther Park and Prof Qammar Abbas and Prof Iqbal Chawala from the Punjab University.
Dr Min and Park have worked together on Buddhism and concluded that Mahayana Buddhism and the Buddhism art originated at Gandhara. Dr Min, who spoke in Korean, said the monk who spread Buddhism to Korea, China and Japan was born in Chota Lahore in Swabi and reached Korea in 384 AD via the silk route.
Dr Min and Park brought 80 head monks to Chota Lahore and other Buddism sites. They also made a documentary covering the entire Buddhist heritage sites in Pakistan, which were shown on Buddhist TV in Korea.
Dr Min has been giving lectures on the Gandhara Art and Pakistan at Buddhist institutes and on Korean television. Korean Buddhists previously believed that Buddhism originated in Nepal and India. “After the discovery, they are now keen to visit Pakistan,” Park said.
This is the first art delegation in Pakistan after terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. **“Since most of the Koreans are ignorant of Pakistan’s history, we have arranged a brief lecture on the history of Pakistan and the Mughal dynasty by two professors of the Punjab University”, a spokesman of the hotel said.
He said, “Park has been working to promote cultural ties between Korea and Pakistan and has organised several cultural exchanges and exhibitions of paintings by Pakistani artists in Seoul Korea. One such exhibition, titled ‘The Spirit of Asia’, was held on August 1 to 15”. **
Prof Abbas and Prof Chawala from the Punjab University said Buddhism had quite an impact on the local architecture.
Giving an example, they said domes in many tombs were taken from Buddhist stupas.
They said the most famous stupa was built in Gandhara. They said arches, lotus flowers and railings were also taken from the Buddhist architecture.
**They said the Punjab University would open a department of Buddhist and Gandhara studies and foreign students would also be admitted. **
A good read article! With this heritage discovery, Pakistan could attract Buddhist visitors from China, North Korea, Republic Korea, Japan and all over the world!
Nice to learn Punjab University has taken measurement for the study of Buddhist religion.