Cuneiform is one of the oldest writing systems in the world, it was said to have evolved mainly in Sumerian / Mesopotamian region. The usage of this script goes back to at least 2800 BCE – 2500 BCE. The famous ancient literature “Epic of Gilgamesh” was written in Sumerian.

Old Persian Cuneiform is the simplified form of Cuneiform Script. It was primarily used for Achaemenian Royal Courts & Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions. This was in use from around 550 BCE till 330 BCE, i.e., from the period of Cyrus the Great until Alexander the Great conquered Achaemenian Empire by defeating Darius -3^rd.

In this lecture series, we will learn about –

1. Cuneiform Alphabets, their comparison with Devnagri & Roman Scripts.
2. History of Achaemenid Empire beginning from Cyrus the Great
3. Religious ideas in Ancient Iran during Achaemenid Rule through the inscriptions
4. Zoroastrian Influence & mention of deities like Mithra in Achaemenid Inscriptions
5. Evidence of the extent of the Empire till Gandhar & India by practically reading the Inscriptions 6. Reading about the efforts of constructing the ancient Suez Canal in Egypt by Achaemenid Kings.
6. Mention of Subcontinent Soldiers in Achaemenid Inscriptions (Sindhi in current Pakistan by the name Hindush & Gandhar).
7. We will learn the inscriptions & history of several Achaemenid Kings like Cyrus the Great, Darius the Great, Xerxes & Artaxerxes etc. in detail. These Kings were almost the contemporaries of Buddha, Ajatshartu of Magadha & Mauryans in Ancient Period.

Need to learn Old Persian Cuneiform –

From the syllabus, we know only about Alexander’s invasion of the Subcontinent. However, our textbooks are silent about his conquests in Persia & in Egypt, while he was on his way to the Subcontinent.

1. Indian & Pakistani syllabus doesn’t cover much detailed information about the ancient history of the regions beyond the borders of the Hindu Kush ranges. Learning this script along with the language will expand the boundaries of our knowledge.
2. There are almost no Cuneiform experts in South Asia in general and in Pakistan specifically. Thus it is significant to share this knowledge for the preservation of Cuneiform and its transmittal to future generations.

Course Instructor: Shailesh H. Kshirsagar
Course Suitable for: Anyone with an interest in History, Anthropology, Archaeology and/or Linguistics.
Course Duration: 10 classes of 2.30 hours each via zoom over weekends (Starting from February 17th, 2023).
Course Fee: Pakistani Students PKR 5000, International Students USD100
Contact: For registration and any other details write at info[@]c2d.org.pk          

An ancient Iranian religious preacher called Zoroaster or Zarathustra in Persian, who lived in the centuries 1200-1400 BC is attributed to be the founder of Zoroastrianism. Most of what is known about Zoroaster comes from the Avesta – a collection of Zoroastrian religious scriptures. For Zarathustra, the God was Ahura Mazda (or the “wise lord”), who created the world through his Holy Spirit, Spenta Mainyu, and considered man as the God’s chosen creation.
Zoroastrianism became the state religion of the ancient kings of Iran, under the Achaemenid Persian Empire (550-330 BC) spread over 26 satrapies or provinces, including the Indian satrapy of Gandhara, conquered by king Darius I (521-486 BCE). Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Empire, was a devout Zoroastrian. He ruled by the Zoroastrian law of Asha (truth and righteousness) but didn’t impose Zoroastrianism on the people of Persia’s conquered territories. In the later Achaemenian period, a common liturgical calendar was created to streamline the Zoroastrian rituals, temples were built up to house cult images and consecrated fires, and a monastic order was fostered throughout the empire. At the time of Alexander’s conquest of the Achaemenian Empire, most inhabitants of the towns and villages in Iranian satrapies were Zoroastrians. During the succeeding dynasties, Zoroastrianism consolidated as the imperial faith, supported by Persian urban elite. The beliefs of Zoroastrianism were spread across Asia via the Silk Road, a network of trading routes that spread from China to the Middle East and into Europe.
Taxila satrapy, as part of Achaemenian Empire, stretched from River Beas to the mountain ranges of Hindu Kush, and lay on the Silk Road, connecting north-western India to Iran and Central Asia. It owed its prosperity to the Central Asian trade. Over the centuries of Persian rule in Gandhara, many Iranians professing Zoroastrian faith had settled in the cities of Gandhara, including Taxila. They were known to the indigenous people of Gandhara as Kambojas, who were also mentioned in the Buddhist Jataka tales. The presence of Zoroastrian community in Taxila is attested through Strabo’s account who was a famous Greek writer from the first century AD. He quoted one of Alexander’s companion Aristobulus on the Indian campaign, that at the “great and flourishing city of Taxila, the dead were thrown out to be devoured by vultures” suggesting the presence of Zoroastrians in the city.
Greeks had been known to the ancient Iranians long before Alexander’s conquest. The first Greeks they knew were the Ionians in Asia Minor. The Iranians called them Yavana, from the Persian form Yauna, the Persian way to say Ionian. In the wake of Alexander’s conquest of Achaemenian Empire, Greek mercenaries and fortune seekers from all walks of life, philosophers, poets, doctors, teachers, architects, artists and artisans, came to settle in the new Greek colonies of Asia. In the cities of Gandhara, where Iranian aristocracy had dominated the city life, Greeks began to settle among them, firmly establishing their rule and way of life. In many places like Taxila, the Indo-Greek kings founded new Hellenic cities, like Sirkap, established by Demetrios I in 200 BCE. The archaeological finds show that the Iranian nobles became avid patrons of Greek artists, architects and craftsmen, relishing their knowledge and skills. Iranian nobles became fully Hellenized in speech and habits, and began to embrace all things Greek.
However, despite the Greek political and cultural hegemony in north-western India, the Zoroastrian and Hellenic religions and culture began to intermingle. An aesthetic and religious expression of this fusion of cultures was a majestic temple called Jandial, built in Greek style on 45 feet high artificial mound, a short distance from the northern gate of Sirkap on the imperial highway. Given its Greek architectural style, Jandial temple is considered as an architectural wonder which is unparalleled in the history of temple architecture of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
Jandial temple entered into the ancient fictional-biographical account of Apollonius, a charismatic teacher and religious reformer from Tyana in Cappadocia (modern central Turkey) who travelled across the known world, from the Atlantic to the Ganges, in the 1^st century CE.

“And they saw a Temple, in front of the wall, which was not far short of 100 feet in size, made of (porphyry) stone covered with stucco, and there was constructed within it a shrine, somewhat small as compared with the great size of the Temple which is surrounded with columns, and deserving of notice. For bronze tablets were nailed into each of its walls on which were engraved the exploits of Porus and Alexander”.
(Philostratus’ Life of Appollonius, 2.16-20)

Today, as the part of World Heritage Sites of Taxila, the archaeological ruins of this renowned temple stand in an isolated corner, enclaved by the sprawling housing colonies. Only traces of the foundation and ground plan of the Jandial temple have survived, excavated in 1912-13 by the renowned British archaeologist Sir John Marshall. The length of the temple is 158 feet and its width is 85 feet. It consists of an open vestibule called pronaos, leading to the closed chamber called naos, and a surrounding corridor called peristyle. At the entrance, there are four Ionic columns made of sandstone supporting a porch. The main shrine is rectangular in plan, and the outer wall is solid masonry with pierced window openings. Behind the main shrine, there is a room called opisthodomos through which there is a set of stairs that leads to a platform where a Parthian fire sanctuary rested. The massiveness of the columns suggests a stone roof, and stones similar to the rest of the structure. Three different types of stones have been used in the construction of the temple. The walls were made of hard limestone, moulding of the Greek cyma-recta type ran all around the outer and inner walls and comprised of soft porous stone locally called kanjur. The four Ionic coloumns were made of grey sandstones.
Although the early twentieth century British archaeologist declared the temple to be a Zoroastrian fire temple built in Greek style, the leading Pakistani archaeologist Dr. Saifur Rahman Dar challenged its position and argued it to be a Greco-Bactrian temple which was built by Greeks for the Greeks. Be that as it may, the historians of Zoroastrianism count Jandial temple as one of those sixty-six monuments of ancient Iranian history, dating from 550 BCE to 650 CE, which are likely to be classified as Zoroastrian fire temples. Despite the presence of Zoroastrian population in India, called Parsis, over a thousand years, who had fled their ancestral homelands in Persia to take refuge in western Gujarat in the 7^th century, the ancient Zoroastrian temple at Taxila remained unnoticed, known only to few Parsi scholars. Currently, Zoroastrianism has an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 followers worldwide, and is practiced today as a minority religion in parts of Iran, India and Pakistan.
In the Zoroastrian religion, fire together with clean water are agents of ritual purity. Fire represents light, warmth and has purifying powers. Clean, white ash for the purification ceremonies is regarded as the basis of ritual life. Traditionally, Zoroastrians worship individually at home, or in the open, facing a source of light. Zoroastrian scriptures do not prescribe worshipping in a temple and make no mention of Zoroastrian places of worship. In ancient times, historical records state that when the community gathered for a religious event, they did so in open air gathering areas on hillsides, around a podium where fire was lit.
The tradition of fire temples started with the development of community fire houses that housed an ever-burning flame. The flame was kept going by professional fire keepers. The members of the community would light their house fires from the central community fire. Over time, Zoroastrians evolved the concept of worshipping in temples. Each fire temple contains an altar with an eternal flame that burns continuously and is never extinguished.
Once established as the central monastic institutions of Zoroastrianism, fire temples were built by the kings, prominent figures, and main clergies who devoted extensive land, income and taxes for them. Known in Persian as Atash-gahs (house of fire), the fire temples were administered by a priestly class. The professional fire keepers called atharvans were employed for tending the ritual fire. Dastur was the title of the high priest which means the upholder and promulgator of the law, who learned the entire Avesta and was proficient in conducting all the ceremonies. They also acted as community leaders, administrators, spiritual guides and teachers.
The alignment of the walls or pillars of the fire houses with the solar-based cardinal points has led some scholars to believe that the fire temples served as a solar-lunar observatory. Using the position of the sun at sunrise, noon-meridian and sunset, the fire temples were used to determine seasons and significant days of the year. Zoroastrians mark these days with festivals (or jashans) and they were particularly important for farmers in determining sowing times. The fire temples were also sites for holding imperial ceremonies to legitimize the change of kingships. Their role as institutions of religious learnings for the priests and lay followers have also been recognized, similar to the social role played by cathedral and congregational mosque.
The structures and functions of the multi-civilizational heritage of Greeks and Iranians in Taxila are poorly understood by the visiting public. The monuments of Taxila including the Jandial temple were inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage Lists in the 80s, as they signified ‘a remarkable accomplishment of humanity, and serve as evidence of our intellectual history’. Sadly the Gandhara archaeological heritage sites, despite their preeminence, fail to tell the intellectual story of the past civilizations. For a visitor what remains on the ground at Jandial temple, for instance, are decaying walls of stone in wilderness and a signboard in shambles.
In spite of the national hype about boosting international tourism, maps, signage and educational content of heritage sites of Taxila, which are essential for visitors to understand and appreciate the cultural, historical, and natural importance of a heritage site are woefully lacking. There is an immense potential for attracting international tourism through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Pakistan. In the highly competitive market of attracting international visitors, cultural sites need distinguishing strategies that allow them to stand out and succeed. Sporadic attempts have to be made to educate the visitors about the site and enhance their visual experience through multi-media content.
The research intensive universities like National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) with disciplines ranging from art and design to communications and artificial intelligence should take a lead in creating interactive visualization based on virtual and augmented reality. It will allow the users to view the real world enhanced with additional 3D graphics superimposed to their field of view either through mobile phones or virtual reality glasses. The use of ICT can guide visitors on interactive journeys through time and space, creating dynamic, immersive storytelling and educational experiences of the heritage sites. The vast scholarship in archaeology provides fertile grounds for historically accurate digital restorations of the sites and monuments such as Jandial temple, which can go a long way in increasing the competitive strength of our burgeoning tourism sector.

Handicrafts are a distinctive feature of a specific culture or community through local craft skills and materials. Kashmiri people and artisans make different types of handicrafts, and decorate the objects by hand. Srinagar, Ganderbal, and Budgam are the main districts in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJ&K), which are known for their handicrafts product.
Kashmiris make different types of handicrafts, with simple traditional materials, such as pashmina, shawls, carpets, silverware, woodwork, crewel embroidery, phool kari, Kashmiri rugs and papier-mâché. It is said that the people of Kashmir learnt Namda weaving in the 11th century, when Mughal emperor Akbar ordered for a suitable floor covering for his horse.
Kashmiri papier-mâché was brought by Muslim saint Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, from Persia in the 14th century. It is based primarily on paper pulp, and is richly decorated, colorful artifact, generally, in the form of vases, bowls, cups, boxes, trays, bases of lamps, and many other small objects. These are made in homes and workshops in Srinagar and other parts of the Kashmir, and are marketed at home and abroad because of the unique production technique and colorful motifs.
Walnut wood carvings, manufactured in IOJ&K are also very famous for their durability, style and craftsmanship. Juglans regia tree that grows in the Kashmir region is used for this, and Kashmir is one of a few places where one can find wood from walnut trees, which is used to make tables, jewelry boxes, trays, etc.
Pashmina is a fine type of cashmere wool, which comes from a number of different breeds of the cashmere goat and is high in demand in local as well as international markets. The textiles made from it were first woven in Kashmir, thus, pashmina came to be known as ‘cashmere’ in the West because Europeans first encountered this fiber here. Often shawls called shahmina are hand spun and woven from cashmere fiber. However, Shahtoosh (king of fine wools) is the name given to a specific kind of shawl, which is woven with the down hair of the Tibetan antelope (chiru) by craftsmen and women of Kashmir. The estimated market value of a Shahtoosh shawl in the western market is around $5,000 –$20,000.
Tourists are really attracted to the traditional outfit for both males and females in Kashmir, called pheran. The pheran and poots consist of two gowns, one over the other and extend to the feet.
Another cultural attraction, Dumhal is a traditional dance performed in IOJ&K by the wattal tribe. Only men folk of the wattal perform this dance on specific occasions and at set locations. Generally, this dance is performed wearing long, colorful robes and tall conical caps, studded with beads and shells. The dancers sing in chorus on the beat of drums. The performers move in a ritual manner and dig a banner into the ground on set occasions and usually the dance begins with men dancing around this banner.
The shikara is a type of wooden boat found in Srinagar in IOJ&K. Shikaras are of varied sizes and are used for multiple purposes, including transportation of people. Like the Venetian gondolas, they are a cultural symbol of Kashmir. Also a large portion of revenue is generated by shikaras, mainly during the tourist season.
Rice and meat is the staple food of Kashmiris and has been since ancient times. The Kashmir valley is noted for its bakery tradition. On the Dal Lake in downtown Srinagar, bakery shops are elaborately laid out. Tsot and tsochvor are small round breads topped with poppy and sesame seeds, which are crisp and flaky, sheermal, lavas (unleavened bread), noon chai, kahwa and kulcha are also popular. Girdas and lavas are served with butter. Kashmiri baqarkhani has a special place in Kashmiri cuisine and has travelled far to other parts of the country.
Wazwan is a multi-course meal in the Kashmiri Muslim tradition, treated with great respect and regarded by the Kashmiri Muslims as a core element of their culture and identity. Its preparation is considered an art and almost all the dishes are meat-based (lamb, chicken, beef, but never fish). The traditional number of courses for the wazwan is thirty-six including but not limited to gushtaba, though there can be fewer.
The entire above-mentioned tangible and intangible cultural heritage has a special socio-economic significance in Kashmir. The handicraft industry remains an important key in the economic development of IOJ&K and the industry has a great handout towards employment opportunities. Handmade products are exported all over the world. Kashmiri handicrafts eliminated financial crises for those people who are affected with physical disabilities. After handicrafts gained foreign exposure, many young Kashmiris pursued making handicrafts as a profession.
Since handicraft products are mainly made for tourists, the industry has helped in the development of tourism in the valley and at the same time, it has made Kashmir famous around the world. For instance, the Kashmiri hand-knotted carpet has a very prominent place in handicrafts because of its unique design, indigenous motifs, quality and durability. The carpet industry makes a great contribution towards exports from the handicraft sector in Kashmir.
Kashmir has remained an industrially backward state due to lack of investment from the private sector, remoteness and poor connectivity, shallow markets, poor infrastructure, and most importantly, the law and order situation. Handicraft industry is suited to Kashmir as it is more labour intensive and less capital intensive, consequently, having scope for employment generation on a large scale. It provides employment to both literate and illiterate people in rural, urban and tribal areas. The handicraft industry acts as a secondary source of income for the farmers who remain unemployed during winters. Both men and women are dependent specifically on the carpet industry in Kashmir for their subsistence.
Besides human tragedy, the economic cost of the recent barbaric curfew and conflict imposed by Indian government cannot be confined to a particular sector of industry or investment prospects. It has immensely threatened and affected the important sources of livelihood of locals such as tourism, horticulture and handicrafts industries. Besides exacting extensive damage to the infrastructure of the region, the violent intrusion has repelled private investment, pushing the economy towards stagnation. The downward trend of economy in Kashmir has been acutely felt as the local markets did not receive any supply of Kashmiri handicrafts in general, and shawls in particular, during this winter season, resulting in scarcity of new variety of pashmina and shatoosh shawls for the domestic as well as foreign consumers. This adds up to the misery of people in Kashmir as they can neither produce their craft, nor market or sell it to readily willing and available buyers, causing an economic death to those who managed to survive from other challenges of brutal state policies.
By repealing Article 370 and 35A of the constitution, people from the rest of India will now have the right to acquire property in IOJ&K and settle there permanently. Kashmiris as well as international critics of India’s Hindu nationalist government see the move as a conspiracy and an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers, which is a serious threat to the culture and traditions of Kashmir. How will the Kashmiri people be able to live, normal, happy, healthy life after this cruel intervention? The social thread would not remain the same and would have a ripple effect on their social as well as economic infrastructure of society. This extreme behavior by Indian government has threatened the core existence of Kashmiris. We all have a social as well as moral responsibility to raise our voice against this barbaric act and strengthen our government agencies to take a stand on international platforms to pressurize India to stop violating human rights in IOJ&K and stripping it of its identity and heritage. HH

Many people don’t know that Pakistan as a land of Gandhara is like Mecca – the holy place of Islam – for the Buddhist community. Swat is also the birthplace of Padmasambhava who is universally celebrated as the Second Buddha, reincarnated in the 8th century AD. There are several leading ancient philosophers from Peshawar, Swat and Taxila, who have played an important role in the spread of Buddhism to Korea, Japan, and China.

Reverend Dr. Neung Hur is a Buddhist monk from Korea, who spent three months in Pakistan as an Artist in Residence at the Gandhara Research and Resource Center, a project of Center for Culture and Development. During his stay, he toured the Buddhist heritage sites all over Pakistan, and led a Buddhist Peace Prayer Ceremony for Kashmir at Bhamala Stupa, Khanpur (KP). He also produced a large number of paintings and drawings on Islamic calligraphy exhibited under the title The Buddhist Monk and Islamic Scriptures: A Work of Art. Inspired from local and Islamic cultural and aesthetic traditions, the reverend monk fused his paintings with Buddhist inspired color symbolism as a token of his love for Gandhara, Pakistan’s symbol for interfaith harmony.

As a seasoned artist, who is well-versed in several Asian styles as well as trained in European realism, the reverend monk has held 80 group exhibitions and 10 solo exhibitions in several countries of the world, including Korea, France, Russia and Mongolia.  He also holds two PhD degrees in the disciplines of Philosophy and Psychology. He has served in monasteries in Tibet, Russia and Mongolia for over 20 years. The reverend monk has been promoting peace through energy healing tours all over the world to cure the human body of diseases while trying to mitigate religious conflicts in the society through arts and meditation.
The artworks draw attention to the universal human energy that unites us, and lifts the veil from the facade of cultural diversity that divides us. The self-realization of the unity of human nature paves the way for inter-religious understanding and world peace. The artist painted while pondering over the message of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (PBUH), received from God and what reverend Gautama Buddha had said over a millennium earlier.
His artwork draws on the literal meanings of the calligraphic texts as well as on the interplay of color symbolism. Living creatures cannot exist without light. Those who aspire to follow God’s attributes must shine and help others shine with divine light. In his spiritual vocabulary inspired by Buddhism, black color represents the dark human self which is blind to the light of God, and lives through hate, arrogance, jealousy and selfishness. Keeping the word of God in mind brightens our lives as well as the lives of others. The green color represents a vibration of life. The patterns of water flowing dynamically represent a vibrant healthy life which is full of energy. Yellow color is invoked to refer to the bounties of nature granted by God such as delicious and nutritious fruits and vegetables, which can make a healthy life and create a healthy society.

As-salāmu ‘alaykum – peace be with you – the salutation greetings of Muslims feels very warm to me. People in Pakistan are very hospitable. Pakistani dress is very good as it covers the whole body and very comfortable as well. That’s why I prefer wearing Pakistani shalwar kameez all the time.

In the poetic words of the artist during an exclusive interview for Hilal English Magazine: “Water is the mother of life. Water and light are the attributes of life. The word of God is light and light is the source of life. This concept is the subject and message of my painting. Do water and light differ from one religion to the other? The universe is one. Don’t we all live together in the same universe? Isn’t it irrational to fight each other just because we belong to different religions? The birth of a life is like a blossoming flower. We are all beautiful flowers. Would you like to step on a beautiful flower or look at it to admire the beauty of God’s creation?”
What is the religious significance of Buddha’s sculptures found so abundantly in the land of Gandhara in Pakistan? 
After Buddha’s death, he advised his followers not to make his statues. Buddhists were asked to follow Buddha and his teachings. To remember his teachings, his followers tried to make statues with sand but they perished quickly. Then they tried making them in clay, which were again very fragile. In Gandhara, the sculptures were made in stone for the first time in the history of Buddhism. However, the statues of Buddha are not for idol worship but they have been created in the spirit of remembrance. It is just like you keep the photographs of your grandparents to keep their memory alive. They are the spiritual reminders of the human presence of Buddha who obliged us to follow his teachings and not to worship his image.
What are the main Buddhist sites in Pakistan that have inspired you the most?
Many people don’t know that Pakistan as a land of Gandhara is like Mecca – the holy place of Islam – for the Buddhist community. Swat is also the birthplace of Padmasambhava who is universally celebrated as the Second Buddha, reincarnated in the 8th century AD. There are several leading ancient philosophers from Peshawar, Swat and Taxila, who have played an important role in the spread of Buddhism to Korea, Japan, and China.

The holy land of Gandhara has so many stupas and monasteries that are not found elsewhere in the world. I want to revive them as living sites of peace and education in order to pave the way for the renaissance of Gandhara as Pakistan’s symbol of international peace and interfaith harmony.

One of the most significant sites of Gandhara is Bhamala Stupa and monastery complex. It must be remembered that when the ancient Buddhist monks chose a site to build a stupa, they looked for the best location with reservoirs of universal energy. The Bhamala Stupa is surrounded by mountains, which act like folding screens shielding the energy. The water of River Haro circles around the mound of the stupa so does the wind that blows around it, creating a powerful hub of spiritual energy. Moreover, the stupa is like a grave and contains body relics of Buddha in it. Human presence in the stupa generates a vortex of that person’s energy, which creates multiple effects on the environment.
What can be done to facilitate the religious pilgrimage of Gandhara for the international Buddhist community?
Some of the religious sites are in a state of perpetual disrepair and most of the stupas are in ruins, which sadly turns them into dead sites. If we can make replicas of old stupas near the existing archaeological sites, for instance, near Taxila, Takht-i-Bahi and Butkara, and new monasteries are constructed, then these religious heritage sites will become living sites. The replicas of the stupas of Gandhara will educate the public about the original form of the Buddhist architecture. The stupas and monasteries will attract Buddhist monks and followers from around the world. It will showcase the positive image of Pakistan as the land of Gandhara to the western world. It would be an ideal opportunity if hotels and other tourist facilities are built around the heritage sites.
A large majority of Buddhists around the world go to India but Pakistan has greater potential for religious tourism. Although Nepal is world famous as the birthplace of Buddha, they do not have many sites besides Lumbini, to interest the visiting religious tourists. Even India does not have as many stupas and monasteries as are found all over Pakistan, from Sindh to Kashmir.
What are the similarities between Islam and Buddhism?
Well, I don’t know Arabic and have not read Quran but I do know that Islam teaches peace, and so does Buddhism. I recited Bismillah before offering Buddhist Peace Prayer for Kashmir at Bhamala Stupa. The Muslims pray five times a day facing the holy Mecca and in Tibet, we bow on every step of the way while facing our holy sites. It means, both Muslims and Buddhists believe the total submission to the absolute truth – the God almighty.
The sound of Azaan – the Muslim call for prayer – really touches me every time I hear it. It is a rhythmical reminder of the preaching of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and its sound is a blessing for the earth.  At prayer time, I saw people leaving their work to offer prayers, which means that people always think about God, the absolute truth, and show the will to do good deeds. Despite the traffic on motorway, people breaking their journey to pray was a fascinating observation for me.
What did you like the most in the Pakistani culture?
As-salāmu ‘alaykum – peace be with you – the salutation greetings of Muslims feels very warm to me. People in Pakistan are very hospitable. Pakistani dress is very good as it covers the whole body and very comfortable as well. That’s why I prefer wearing Pakistani shalwar kameez all the time. We have an old Korean saying that anybody who wears comfortable dress is a king. So, all Pakistani people are kings and queens. The Pakistani food is very healthy and a balanced diet if we reduce the amount of oil being used in it. Pakistani fruit is among the best in quality in the world such as oranges, banana and mango are full of nutrition. If we cultivate medicinal herbs and plants that will get full nutrition due to the quality of soil here, it may turn out to be the best medicine.
I have not enjoyed live performance of qawali, Pakistan’s spiritual music, but have otherwise listened to it many times. I feel qawali creates perfect harmony between human beings and the surroundings around it. It has the spiritual power to lift the veil of darkness and make you feel as if you are facing the sunlight.
What are your future plans for Gandhara?
I want to be a goodwill ambassador of Gandhara for promoting the image of Pakistan as the holiest land of Buddhism. The holy land of Gandhara has so many stupas and monasteries that are not found elsewhere in the world. I want to revive them as living sites of peace and education in order to pave the way for the renaissance of Gandhara as Pakistan’s symbol of international peace and interfaith harmony. I will offer my help and support in establishing monasteries with meditation and healing centers, which will help spread the knowledge of Gandhara in Pakistan as well as draw Buddhists around the world to Pakistan.
In the end, I would like to say “Pakistan-Korea Zinda Baad”.

Dr Omar was addressing a seminar on ‘The state of zoos in Pakistan: searching for humanity,’ organised here by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

Dr Omar said that unfortunately there is general denial of rights of the animals, where animals are treated as an object. He termed the zoos as prisons where animals are kept as innocent prisoners. He said that inefficiency of the management, poor governance structure and lack of accountability mechanism are largely responsible for the miserable state of zoos in the country. He stressed the need of educating the public about the rights of the animals and civil engagement to help protect the zoos and wildlife parks in the country through citizen liaison committees to report on malpractices and mismanagement.

Dr Imran Khalid from SDPI said that zoos could serve to educate us about the value of biodiversity amid extinction of species all over the world as a result of climatic changes. He said environmental degradation and extreme weather events in the form of heat waves and droughts are not only negatively affecting the humans but also other species including animals, which need to be protected.

He said that the state of zoos in Pakistan is questionable on many fronts including capacity gap, lack of skill, human resources, poor infrastructure and lack of security. He urged the authorities to take the responsibility of conserving the zoos and wildlife as per international biodiversity conventions.

Dr Ejaz Ahmed, biodiversity specialist said it is unfortunate that the state of the zoos in the country deteriorated over time, but zoos and wildlife parks have the important role to play in conservation of extinct species. He said the need is to educate the public and especially the visitors about the importance of the animal conservation and biodiversity for the ecosystem. However, the authorities need to take care of the animals’ food, health and provide a recreational environment as per international standards, he added.

Katie Sipra, scientific officer, Bio Science Department, Comsats University, stressed the need of conservation of animals in zoos through animal management, research, recreation and educational programmes.

Ms Sipra said that zoos should be taken care of by highly trained individuals who are passionate about their profession. Zoos and wildlife parks should be accredited and must meet the international standards, which include living environments, social groupings, nutrition, enrichments, veterinary programmes, involvement in conservation and research, education programmes, safety policies and procedures and physical facilities.

Feminist groups were in the vanguard of the struggle for political and social rights during the heyday of the Gen Zia’s martial law regime, and women activists were the first to launch public protests against legislation that amounted to state-sponsored gender discrimination — placing the issue of women’s rights at the heart of the national democratic struggle.

Following amendments to criminal law regarding ‘honour’ killings in 2004, we have witnessed a decade of progressive legislation being moved in parliament. In recent years, the efforts of the Alliance against Sexual Harassment culminated into the enactment of the landmark Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010.

There is still a long way to go to create enabling work environments.

Under the act, a federal ombudsperson secretariat was created in Islamabad in 2010 specifically for the resolution of cases of workplace harassment. Retired justice Yasmeen Abbasi, the current federal ombudsperson, has contributed significantly to the implementation of the law. The ombudsperson’s office is also working on amending the act to replace ‘women’ with ‘person’ in the act to make it more inclusive and extend its outreach to workers in the uncharted shores of the informal economy.

However, the right of suo motu action, which is granted to all other federal and provincial ombudspersons in the country, has been denied to the federal ombudsperson for workplace harassment. Without the legal authority to proactively seek out cases of sexual harassment, such as those that are brought to the public’s attention through the media, the ombudsperson’s office must wait for the aggrieved person to step forward and lodge a formal complaint before the law can take its course.

If a woman accuses a man of sexual harassment, her claim must be taken seriously. Sadly, the prevalent chauvinist attitude assumes that the woman must be guilty of provocation. Such allegations are routinely brushed aside in organisations dominated by men. Given this casual attitude towards harassment and the fact that women are almost universally discriminated against by men in Pakistan, some say that even if a woman wanted to make a false allegation the attempt could be ignored. The National Implementation Watch Committee, a part of the implementation framework, should proactively monitor cases of harassment to offset any chance of the law being misused.

What does it say of the efficacy of the federal ombudsperson for workplace harassment that even a member of parliament such as Aaisha Gulalai chose to make her allegations public and fight a media trial with PTI chairperson Imran Khan rather than file a formal complaint with the office? Parliamentarians must arm the ombudsperson’s office with the powers to actively initiate investigations into workplace harassment, and make use of the mechanism themselves to build trust in the institution.

Given the increasing number of women in higher education, business and employment, all public and private organisations must abide by the act in letter and spirit. Many women are also assuming active roles in politics and working across various tiers of political parties. It is high time that the National Assembly speaker and the Senate chairperson establish an internal code of conduct, and a complaint and appeal mechanism, to enable women parliamentarians to participate in a fair, equitable political environment.

Gender sensitivity trainings workshops should be conducted in all places of work and education in both the private and public sectors. Schools, colleges and universities — nurseries for developing a young nation — should be the focal points for gender sensitisation programmes.

Notwithstanding the gaps in the implementation of laws designed to create enabling public, work and home environments for women, the series of legislation and amendments in the Penal Code are commendable attempts to reform not just criminal justice but also society. These laws aim to change deep-seated gender inequalities, rooted in our social structure, which tend to restrict the economic and intellectual potential of Pakistani women to unremunerated household labour.

It is an obscure fact of our national history that nearly all our human rights bills have been tabled by women parliamentarians, aided by rights activists. Pakistani women have struggled very hard to achieve legal emancipation; however, there is still a long way to go to achieve emancipation from the clutches of a patriarchal, social and cultural order.

As close royal aides, transgender persons were appointed as generals, governors, judges and teachers, according to their upbringing, education and experience. The less cultivated among them were employed in lower administrative ranks. In the slave market of mediaeval India, eunuchs were sold at a price three times higher than an average man.

Defined as a person who identifies with a gender other than the one assigned at birth, khawajasira has been adopted by human rights activists as a substitute for more customary (but derogatory) terms used to identify the transgender community. Today, not all khawajasira are eunuchs; the majority of them are male, biologically speaking, who adopt a ‘feminine’ persona, ie their manner and appearance is more commonly associated with the female gender.

The pejorative status of transgender people is a colonial relic we must discard.

Still, under Pakistan’s criminal laws, all transgender persons are legally considered eunuchs. Even the groundbreaking judgement on transgender rights by the Supreme Court in 2009 (and subsequent judgements in 2012) refers to khawajasira as eunuchs. Pakistani laws are based on a thick text of colonial legislations, which not only has primacy in current legislation, but also determine the social attitudes and public morality of contemporary society.

In contrast to their dignified status during the Mughal era, nowadays in our society to be transgender is widely regarded as a social pathology, its people inherently morally bankrupt and criminally suspect. The pejorative assignation of sexual deviancy stems from a 19th-century European view of politics, domesticity and gender, which was inherited and applied by the East India Company as it gained hegemonic control over the Indian political sphere.

Given the prominent role of the khawajasira in the Mughal administration, British colonialists perceived them as a threat to their territorial control that had to be eliminated. The British took steps to stop their community from growing, and prohibited the employment of otherwise highly competent khawajasira in the British Indian administration.

With the reins of power passed to the Crown, they began the task of social engineering British India. The lives of the transgender community were to be governed under the infamous Criminal Tribes Act, 1871. Under this colonial law, from the elite khawajasira to subaltern hijra, the community was considered equivalent to a tribe whose criminal intent was determined by their transgender-ness, and thus brought under the surveillance and control of the colonial state. By yoking the community under draconian laws as petty criminals, their movements were policed, their living quarters raided and their public performances banned on grounds of obscenity.

When the Mughal empire fell, the khawajasira too fell from grace, never able to regain what they had lost. From being trustworthy politicians, bureaucrats and generals of the Indian royalty and elite, they were reduced to being a laughing stock and counted among the poorest of the poor — treatment they continue to suffer from.

Although the revenge of the British colonialist seems total and the destruction of transgender groups complete, the khawajasira continue to resist the colonial and post-colonial control of their sexuality and survive to date as subalterns of Indian history, silenced and un­­heard by society. Today’s spectacle of the khawajasira begging on the street originates from the custom of toli, the collection of alms, as an everyday form of colonial resistance as well as an economic strategy to gain an alternate livelihood. More­over, the very act of begging turned them into ascetics whose blessings, it is believed, can allow a woman to conceive a male child.

After centuries of neglect and shame, the world of the transgender community in Pakistan is rapidly transforming. While the judiciary is to be credited for recognising non-binary gender, the role of the legislature in allowing transgender people their rights of equal citizenship, admitted by the courts, through relevant legislation must also be commended. In this regard, the role of the National Commission for Human Rights, the federal ombudsman’s office and transgender rights activists is laudable in drafting a bill tabled in parliament for the protection and advancement of our transgender community. It is a moment of reckoning for legal mores and public morality, which has held the potential and promise of this community in chains for far too long. A new era must begin.

The growing use of social media, smartphones and digital devices is transforming our children’s lives in unprecedented ways, giving them fantastic opportunities to navigate the world from the safety of their own homes. It is estimated that one in three children around the world — most of them outside the West ­— now uses the internet. Schoolwork, online gaming and social networking are popular online activities.

While most children in our cities navigate the internet for homework, schools teach little about the risks and responsibilities of being online, the pros and cons of the internet. Young minds are lured into the cyber world knowing little about viruses, online privacy, social networking etiquette, and other internet safety and security issues. The explosion in popularity of internet sites for social interaction, unrestricted access to age-inappropriate content online, and extended screen time are playing havoc with our children’s social, emotional and cognitive skills.

We watch out for children when they go out of the home, but we fear nothing when they go online. We will not leave our children with a stranger, yet most of us are content to let them surf the virtual world on their laptops or smartphones, considering this a benign pastime.

We are not training our youth to understand the complexity of online content, or to be able to differentiate between authentic information and misleading content, whether it comes from paid propaganda websites or individual user-generated content. They don’t know the difference between news and fake news. The exploitation of young people at the hands of sharks on the social media is a growing phenomenon, under-reported due to social taboos.

With the widespread use of smartphones and tablets, photography has become a general skill among the young. The worldwide fad among the youth of taking selfies has led to oceans of photographs. Most of these pictures land on social media sites such as Instagram or Facebook. The circulation of personal photographs of girls and women on social media outlets can be disastrous in Pakistan where societal norms are conservative. Yet, millions of family photographs are circulating on Facebook, with no privacy settings.

Nobody is watching over children browsing the web.

With advances in Photoshop, creating fake IDs is child’s play. The social consequences of a faked account can be devastating for someone’s life and career. Most of Pakistan’s urban young live in a social environment where there are very few opportunities for social and physical engagement beyond school or colleges, such as hobby clubs, art and cultural centres, or sports grounds. In the absence of face-to-face interaction, there is a tendency towards online relationships through social networking websites.

There is a contradiction between what young people see on the digital media and what they experience in their personal lives. The pleasure of experiencing Western culture through the digital media contrasts with the stark realities of lived experience in a Third World country that is plagued by corruption and social injustice. Feeling powerless in either changing or beating the system, young people in Pakistan suffer from anxiety and frustration, with some even taking refuge in narcotics. Outbursts of emotions through social media updates and blogging can land them in trouble with the law.

Sadly, public investment in the development of citizenship is minimal. More money is spent on upholding the law through coercion, than in trying to uphold it through civic education. While the chief of army staff warns the youth about the dangers lurking in the internet, the risk of college-going teenagers, such as Noreen Leghari, being radicalised by complete strangers through online interaction is on the rise.

Internet filtering is a method of controlling inappropriate content used by many countries; it needs to be gainfully employed further in eliminating hate speech from the internet. However, it should not be used as a back door for the government to have greater online control over the freedom of speech in the country.

A nationwide campaign anchored in schools is needed to make children aware of the potential risks of the internet. Digital literacy should be an essential part of the curriculum from the early years in school, so that children recognise and avoid the dangers on the internet. A stakeholder consultation comprising of parents, IT experts, government officials, and school officials is required to equip our young people with online literacy so that they can benefit from the brave new world that technology has opened up.