“A Pilgrimage to Pakistan”
Mar 29th, 2007 | Comments
I came across an interesting nonfiction essay “The Pilgrimage” by Susan L. Adkins (sent to me by a young sensitive lady Sucharita Sengupta who now lives in New Delhi).
Susan describes her visit to the site of an ancient ruin in Pakistan. The essay was recently published in a Pakistani journal, The Way Ahead.
Susan has also published nonfiction in a number of magazines, including the Cousteau Society’s Calypso Log, New Scientist (U.K.), MS., Viewpoint (Pakistan), and others.
Excerpts: “Let your eyes settle over this tiny, isolated site–the heart of a once holy land known as Gandhara. Cutting a wide path down the spine of Pakistan, Gandharan remains hug both sides of the Indus River as it tumbles thousands of miles from the heights of the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea.
“Alexander the Great marched his legions onto this bit of Asia, uniting East and West more than 300 years before the birth of Christ. Gaze over the wide plain with its low, terraced land stretching northward to the treeless hills, and you will see the dust from his army’s feet still settling in the distance.
“On this land you will sense the ghosts of the hundreds of thousands who came before you. The worn foundations of their cities echo the joy and sadness lived here, and the surviving stone relics hint at their story.
“Long before the time of Christ, Buddhist religion, art and civilization flowered from this piece of earth. With the stone footprints left by monasteries, temples and religious shrines, touch the handiwork of a 700 year flood of Buddhist pilgrims who journeyed from as far away as China.
“Rub your hands across the scars of its decline–those left by the Dark Ages brought so long ago by the marauding White Huns. Many pilgrims and barbarians alike stopped at Dharmarajika as you do today…”
To read the full essay please click here…
In my earlier posts I have written about the shared heritage of India and Pakistan. Although some people in Pakistan may describe the country as pure Islamic, you cannot completely whitewash the past…Can you?
