
2nd Conference on Buddhist heritage of Pakistan
The 2nd Conference on Buddhist Heritage held at Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad from 2 to 3 March. Aftab-ur-Rehman Rana, Managing Director PTDC and President of STFP, participated in the closing session of two-day conference as a guest speaker.
Mr. Rana said “Pakistan is the holy land for millions of Buddhist devotees around the world because the it the birthplace of Mahayana Buddhism and many renowned Buddhist philosophers and Gurus were born in the areas which are part of preset Pakistan. Pakistan is a land of great Buddhist heritage and there are millions of Buddhist who can be attracted to visit Pakistan. He said, we need to engage all the stakeholders to provide an ideal environment for the promotion of religious tourism especially for Buddhist religious tourism in Pakistan. He further emphasized that we need to especially involve local communities living in the vicinities of heritage sites through the sustainable heritage tourism in the protection and providing custodianship of the heritage sites as well as improving the economic well-being of locals through tourism. He said, there is also need to create a self-financing mechanism through tourism promotion to better protect and manage the heritage sites of Buddhism which have great potential for attracting religious and heritage tourism”.
The two-day International Conference and Art Festival was jointly organized by Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations, Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, Silk Road Centre, KP Archaeology and Museum Department, PTDC and other national and international partner organizations. More than 50 research papers were presented by national and international speakers on the different topics related to Buddhist heritage conservation, education, peace, inter-faith harmony and building partnerships for collaborative research.
Together with research presentations, the conference hosted an art festival featuring exhibition of Gandhara art and crafts. In this exhibition, local and international artists presented the outstanding beauty of Buddhist art through their artworks and visual stories. The artwork was on display throughout the conference.