Sri Lanka media team visited Taxila Museum in Pakistan. They also visited many Buddhist Archeological sites in Lahore.
By Chandana Wijekoon from Pakistan
Taxila Archeological Site – The World Heritage
Taxila, the ancient city of Gandhara, is now an archaeological site under the sun. Archaeologists discovered in their excavations here the city ruins, artifacts, coins, pottery, ornaments, and many other objects that could be traced back to the 6th century BC. The archaeological museum stands at the entrance-the gate to the ancient city. The two-story building nestles peacefully in the garden amid natural surroundings. It was inaugurated in 1928.
At the entrance hall, the genuine votive stupa brought from an outdoor monastery was placed there. the entrance hall and its both wings contain and showcase many glass shelves, cases, and cupboards of Buddhist art of Gandhara and sculptures, Buddha images, statues, heads, and busts, Bodhisatva statues, artifacts ancient tools, weaponry, pottery, rare coins, archaeological objects and evidence excavated from the sites around.
Remarkably, the stone relief tablets depict delicately the story of Lord Buddha-from his birth of prince Siddharatha when his mother Sirimahamaya stood delivering him from her belly, his leaving from secular world in search for truths, his enlightenment, his first preaching, and at the end his Great Nirvana. the museum also displays the replica of the Fasting Buddha in his self-mortification-its original is kept in the Lahore Museum. The Buddha images or busts, whether intact, defective, broken, or impaired by the so-called White Huns, are always the objects of worship and great respect for us, Buddhists.
Taxila in the old days was arguably like a global university where students largely from the age of 16 from the Indian sub-continent, Central Asia, Persia, and the land beyond came for higher learning-linguistics, arts, Dharma, scriptures, the art of government, and other studies. It may metaphorically be compared to Oxford, Cambridge, or Harvard where students from all over the world prefer to attend for further studies.
Under the White-blue sky and hot sun, Dharmmarajika monastery stands 3 kilometers east of the museum. One part of the complex may be called the stupa area, the other the monastery proper. However, only the ruins now remain, the main stupa was erected over the chamber of the Buddha’s relics, deposited by Kind Asoka the Great, it was said. In the 19th century, the western face of the stupa was somehow broken and the relics were stolen. Dharmmarajika was named after the designation of King Asoka, namely Dharmmaraj-the king who deeply held faith in Dharma.
In 1917 a casket was dug out here, it evidently contained the relics of Lord Buddha. The viceroy of British India then presented the relics to the Buddhists of Sri Lanka, which has been since enshrined as the Buddha’s of Sri Lanka, which has been since enshrined as the Buddha’s tooth, contained in a case and covered by a seven-tier golden Chedi, at the Temple of the Tooth in Candy or Sirivattanapura in Sri Lanka.
Most of the major artifacts and objects discovered in the excavations at Dharmmarajika have been kept at the museum. One silver scroll carries the inscription in Kharoshti that the relics were those of Lord Buddha himself, the scribe was a Bactrian., and reads at the end “ the present king, king of kings, the son of heaven the Kushana”
Jaulian Monastery stands 7 kilometers northeast , of the museum, perched on a hill of some 92 meters high. Large stupas no longer exist, only the ruins of the walls of the building and many sculptured Buddha images and his major monks, sadly most of the statues were impaired at the hands of the White Huns. Merely a few survived the demolition intact.
A meditating Buddha statue though with impaired head, chest, and hands have a holed navel. It was believed this statue was holy with the pwer of blessing for good health. Faithfuls like to place their finders in that holed navel when praying and wishing for good health and against certain bodily ailments.
The ancient city of Taxila itself had shown us the ultimate truth-the three characteristics of component thing-namely, existence , transformation, and extinction.
