Neither an archeologist, nor an expert on Gandharan art and culture, and certainly not an expert on Buddhism, yet I have been devoted to the promotion and understanding of Gandhara in the world. Why? Because my interest in promoting Gandhara is threefold: one, to generate income for Pakistan by creating a unique Buddhist pilgrimage sector which would generate billions of dollars for Pakistan; two, facilitate the sub-integration of South Asia and ASEAN countries around the shared Buddhist heritage; and, lastly, to promote an image of Pakistan that shows diversity, tolerance, inclusiveness and moderation.
In the past decade, the deeper I have ventured on this journey, I have come to the conclusion that educating the world is secondary, Pakistan does not itself does not realize the significance of Gandhara.
So my journey changes!
Pakistan’s understanding of Gandhara stems from the point of view of western archeologists. It is time that Pakistan looked at Gandhara through the eyes of the Buddhists. If we do thus, Gandhara will become the focal point of pilgrimage for some 500 million Buddhists worldwide.
In the past decade, the deeper I have ventured on this journey, I have come to the conclusion that educating the world is secondary, Pakistan does not itself does not realize the significance of Gandhara.
On Vesak Day this year, I found myself in the company of senior Buddhist monks from across Asia – men of extraordinary spiritual weight, robed in saffron and ochre, gathered in Pakistan to pay homage to a civilization most of the world has forgotten. For them, this was not a diplomatic courtesy call. It was a pilgrimage home.
Pakistan is the cradle of Buddhism. This is not simply a figure of speech. The ancient region of Gandhara – spanning what is today Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Afghanistan and even Central Asia – is where Buddhism was first given human form. The Gandharan artists of the first and second centuries CE were the ones who dared to sculpt the Buddha’s face, to render the divine in marble and schist, giving visual language to a faith that had, for five centuries, depicted its founder only through symbols. Those images traveled the Silk Road and transformed the religious iconography of half the world. The seated Buddha you see in temples from Tokyo to San Francisco traces its lineage back to the workshops of Taxila and Peshawar.
And yet we, the inheritors of this civilization, understand so little of what we hold.
That was the humbling realization on Vesak this year. Sitting with the Venerables Ajarn Anil Sakya and being blessed by the Venerable MV Thebo, I was struck not by the distance between our traditions, but by the intimacy of the connection. These monks looked upon Pakistan’s soil with reverence. They saw what we have largely stopped seeing: that this land is sacred ground for 500 million Buddhists worldwide.
The opportunity this presents is immense – and almost entirely unrealized.
Consider the numbers. There are millions international religious pilgrims visiting Buddhist sites globally each year. The circuit of Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, and Kushinagar draws hundreds of thousands. Yet Taxila – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the seat of one of the ancient world’s greatest universities, and arguably the most important Buddhist archaeological complex in existence – receives a tiny fraction of that traffic. Gandhara is mentioned in Pali scriptures, in the Mahabharata, in the writings of Chinese pilgrims like Xuanzang who walked these routes in the 7th century CE. The infrastructure of devotion exists in the historical record. What is missing is a holistic strategy to make Gandhara a centerpiece of the Buddhist world.
That is precisely what the Gandhara initiative is working to build. The roadmap is ambitious but grounded: streamlining visa regimes for Buddhist pilgrims and monastics, create the appropriate infrastructure, introduce Gandhara worldwide by establishing Gandhara Corners in key cities worldwide – cultural and interpretive centers that introduce global audiences to this heritage before they arrive. The goal is 5 million pilgrims in ten years. It is very achievable.
The institutional architecture being developed includes a Task Force focused on Gandhara Promotion, “Patrons of Gandhara” Committee consisting of Monks from the world, appointment of Ambassadors of Gandhara in relevant countries, drawing senior monks from across the Buddhist world to serve not just as spiritual endorsers but as active advisors – on the restoration of sites, on infrastructure that respects monastic sensibilities, on the communities that live alongside these ancient places and must benefit from, not merely tolerate, the visitors who come. Academic linkages are being forged to ensure that the scholarship follows the footfall, and that Gandhara’s story is told with the depth and nuance it deserves rather than the thumbnail treatment it too often receives.
There is also a vision for Loving Kindness Monastic Zones – contemplative spaces where Buddhist communities can establish a living presence in Pakistan, not as tourists but as residents, practitioners, interlocutors. Paired with Interfaith and Meditation Centers, these could become sites of genuine encounter: places where Pakistani civil society and international Buddhist communities build the kind of sustained relationship that transforms how each sees the other.
Pakistan needs that transformation as much as the Buddhist world needs Gandhara. At a moment when the country’s international image is freighted with complexity, there is something quietly powerful about the sight of senior monks from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Japan standing on Pakistani soil and calling it blessed. Soft power is rarely softer, or more durable, than when it is rooted in authentic shared history.
Vesak – the day that marks the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing – is a celebration of light and impermanence. It is also, at its heart, a call to see clearly. Pakistan has one of the world’s great spiritual inheritances sitting in its earth, its museums, its carved cliff faces and ruined stupas. The monks who came this year could see it plainly. Now we just need to introduce the true spirit to Gandhara to Pakistan and the World.
The writer is a Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council