Pakistan promoting Buddhist tourism !

[christine V]

Pakistan have recently known to be almost on war with India. But, story change where they decided to promote Buddhist Tourism.

India was once known as Buddhist country, and, with Dalai Lama and those Tibetan Refugees stay in India; India is known to be one of the famous site for Tibetan Buddhism. As Pakistan promoting Buddhist spot in their country, could it be influent by China, as we know China is promoting Buddhism strongly recently years. By Pakistan promoting Buddhism spot and claim that they have the earlier history in Buddhism, what have India left? Already Nepal claim that Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Nepal.

With Dalai Lama in India, not only the CTA do not promote Buddhism well, but create so many chaos among their own refugees and to the Buddhist world by using Dorje Shugden's issues. If this issues, it bring so many tension to tourists who want to visit to Buddhist side in India. 

If One day, India realise they no longer could use Dalai Lama issues to poke China, and, worst with these Tibetans refugees be in India and cause burden to India, will India still allowed Tibetan Refugees to be in India? Bear in mind, India is not leasing land CTA whole life.. as time goes by.. CTA should really figure out the welfare of their people.

For more news on Pakistan Promoting Buddhism

ISLAMABAD: Thailand’s leader of the Buddhists community, Arayawangso is visiting Pakistan in April to participate in an inter-faith harmony event.

During the visit, the most respected leader of the Buddhists across the world will also visit the ancient Buddhist sites particularly in Swat and Taxila and interact with the local community there.

According to an activist working for promotion of Buddhist tourism in Pakistan, Imran Shaukat the Buddhist leader’s visit is taking place to bridge the distance among followers of various faiths.

“He is one of the few monks who have worked with the Muslims of Southern Thailand and has quite a good understanding of Islam,” said Shaukat adding, it [the visit] will inspire other monks and the Buddhist people of the region to visit Pakistan and see Buddhist attractions here.

With recent tourism-friendly steps announced by the Pakistani government, tourism promoters hope a large number of Buddhists will travel to Pakistan as the country is home to several historical Buddhist sites.

Days before Pulwama incident, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Quraishi held a meeting with ambassadors and high commissioners of the Buddhist countries in order to explore the country’s untapped potential in this particular sector.

Buddhist sites

In that meeting Quraishi briefed the diplomats about the sprawling signs of Buddhism in various parts of the country, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan and the Punjab.

According to Imran Shaukat, Pakistan is home to Buddhism sites and there were 1200 to 1400 big and small sites that have some historical link to Lord Buddha and his times.

“Unfortunately, we have not capitalised on it and this area by and large lies untapped and unexplored,” said Shaukat.

“Our region, Swat, is one of the eight places where Buddha’s ashes were brought and there is a site indicating that place in the valley,” said he adding a 30-metre reclining Buddha statue has also been discovered in Haripur.

According to Imran Shaukat Buddhism flourished in what is now Pakistan some 2,300 years ago, when the region was the centre of a Buddhist civilisation that took root under the rule of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, leaving an abundant archaeological legacy of art and architecture.

The Gandharan civilisation, which lasted from the 6th century BC to 5th century AD is credited with creating the first carved images of Shakyamuni Buddha in stone, stucco, terra-cotta, and bronze, most of which were enshrined in monasteries and stupas in the region.

Terming the Foreign Office’s initiative as a wonderful step, he said he had been working on this project for almost a decade.

Secretary of Pakistan Youth Hostels Association (PYHA) while talking to Gulf News also said that Pakistan is a land of diverse climates and its rich cultural, heritage sites, green lands, pastures, snow-capped mountains, lakes, valleys, rivers and sea, and have the potential to attract tourists from every corner of the world.

“In Sindh we have archaeological sites of Mohenjodaro reflecting ancient civilisation as old as 2500BC in Punjab, Harrapa that traces its marks back to 2600BC.”

Link: https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/top-thai-buddhist-leader-to-visit-pakistan-1.62415830

[Drolma]

Pakistan is very clever to leverage and promote its Buddhist sites to the world. There are 535 million Buddhists worldwide, just China alone there are 244 million Buddhists. This is a very lucrative tourism target market for Pakistan.

As the Chinese are getting richer, they like to travel overseas to visit. Pakistan sees this potential market and it is very wise of them to develop and promote the ancient Buddhist sites in their country to generate income. If only Afghanistan did not destroy the Buddhist sites in their country, they can also use those historical sites to generate income for their country.

Pakistan is also very clever to use inter-faith harmony as the basis for them to promote the Buddhist sites. By using this method, they will not anger other Muslim countries and they can help to promote peace and harmony among different religions. The CTA also has the most valuable assets to generate income, i.e. the Tibetan Buddhism. However, the CTA fails to leverage on that, instead, they create conflicts in the Buddhist community and this has put people off.

[SabS]

It will be a good step by Pakistan to promote Buddhist tourism as Buddhism has that association with peace. It will counter their image of a haven for terrorism. However, terrorism is something that we need to keep in mind as it makes it such a dangerous place for pilgrimage. Pakistan should realise that and take steps to secure the safety for tourists especially when Muslim terrorists usually targets those of other race. If it was me, I would not go for any pilgrimage there knowing that every second of my life may be in danger.