An historically significant Buddhist stupa in northeastern Pakistan, which may be as old as the 3rd century BCE, is under threat from urban development and neglect, according to Pakistan’s Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM).
Mankiala Stupa. From Wikipedia
A team of archaeologists from the DOAM recently visited the Mankiala Stupa, located about 22 miles from Islamabad, and found that a small house, a flour mill, and a bus stand have been built dangerously close to the site. The DOAM said the recent encroachment of urban sprawl had covered much of the neighboring three square miles, which includes the stupa and several ancient monasteries.
“The signpost [to] the site is also missing,” said a DOAM official, adding that the stupa’s caretakers had abandoned the site and the once-lush green lawns were being used as grazing fields for goats and sheep. (Dawn)
The stupa is protected under Pakistan’s Antiquities Act of 1975, under which no development may take place within 200 feet of a protected site. The Act protects 403 ancient ruins in Pakistan, including six world heritage sites such as Lahore Fort, the Shalimar Gardens, and Rohtas Fort.
Historians believe that the stupa dates to the Gandhara period (c. 6th century BCE–11th century CE), with The British Library dating it specifically to the reign of Kanishka the Great (127–151 CE). DOAM archaeologist Ghafoor Lone, on the other hand, believes that the stupa might even have been built by the Indian emperor Ashoka, who is notable not only for ruling over most of the Indian subcontinent from about 269–232 BCE, but also for converting to and promoting Buddhism.
Relics from the stupa kept at the British Museum. From Wikipedia
Mankiala Stupa is thought to have been built to memorialize the place where, according to a parable in the Jakata tales, the Buddha sacrificed his body to feed a starving tigress and her seven cubs.
“There are some 550 stories of Lord Buddha’s reincarnations. The eight most famous ones are depicted on relief works and engravings found in museums. Offering his flesh to the tigress is one of these eight, which is associated with this place,” said Ghafoor Lone. (Dawn)
The stupa was discovered in 1808 by Britain’s first emissary to Afghanistan, Mountstuart Elphinstone, who included a detailed account of it in his memoir Kingdom of Caubul (1815). An inscription reveals that it was restored in 1891 by a regiment of the British Indian Army.
According to the DOAM archaeologists, during the mid-1800s, Italian explorer and mercenary Jean-Baptiste Ventura, who later served under Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, excavated the site and removed many artifacts.
“There is no record of how many artifacts were carried out of the country. Some notes written by . . . Ventura merely hint at the magnitude of the plunder,” said the official. (Dawn)
Artifacts from the site are now in the possession of the British Museum in London. A safety barrier now encloses the stupa, which has a gaping hole as a result of the excavations of relic hunters.
An official in the Punjab Department of Archaeology, which is the custodian of the site, did not dispute that the site had been neglected, especially after the political devolution of power to decentralization five years ago. Administrative control of protected sites and monuments in the country was taken away from the federal archaeology department and handed over to provincial authorities.