‘We’ve barely scratched the surface’
Growing up in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, where the Buddha is said to have attained mahaparinirvana or left his earthly form, Sunita Dwivedi was fascinated by Buddhist history from an early age. She gave up a career in journalism in 1997 to make her way through Asia and Europe, exploring the ruins of hundreds of Buddhist establishments along the Silk Road. She has since authored four travelogues, published by Rupa — Buddhist Heritage Sites of India (2006); In Quest of the Buddha: A Journey on the Silk Road (2009); Buddha in Central Asia: A Travelogue (2014); and Buddha in Gandhara (2020). Her works have been published in cultural journals in India and China. Excerpts from an interview:
You’ve travelled extensively through Afghanistan, where you braved a stone pelting to shoot some images in the villages east of Bamiyan. What’s been happening there over the last few years?
In Afghanistan, a global effort at preservation and restoration is on. There are projects to restore the giant Bamiyan Buddhas by reassembling the blasted rocks and adding new material to fill the gaps. Excavations in the area have unearthed ancient Buddhist cities and towns. Remains of stupas, cave paintings and carvings are being preserved. A motorable road now passes in front of the caves and through the villages of the Bamiyan and adjacent Kakrak and Foladi valleys to facilitate tourist inflow and restoration efforts.
Meanwhile, renowned archaeologist Zemaryalai Tarzi has been on a quest since 2003 to find a 1,000-ft-long Sleeping Buddha in Bamiyan, not far from where the Taliban destroyed gigantic Buddha idols 20 years ago. It is mentioned in the memoirs of the 7th century Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang, and Tarzi is convinced it’s still there. If he finds it, he’ll have discovered the world’s largest Sleeping Buddha.
Pakistan is taking a surprising new interest in its Buddhist heritage too.
A couple of years ago, Pakistan unveiled the remains of a 1,700-year-old, 48-ft-long Sleeping Buddha at Haripur, possibly the oldest of its kind. Recent excavations have revealed Buddhist antiquities from the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE, putting villages on the world’s archaeological map. New excavations are expected to add to the glory of the Swat region.
Globally, in addition to the restoration of sites and new discovery projects, local site museums are being established and there are stricter prohibitions on illegal digs and trade in antiquities.
Which countries and Indian regions have you seen do a good job of preserving Buddhist relics?
Buddhist antiquities everywhere are treated as icons of world heritage. China leads in restoring and preserving ancient sites. Some of these are like open-air cave museums.
In India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the richest storehouses of Buddhist statuary, art and manuscripts, little is on display. To see the breathtaking finds from South Asia, visit the museums in Mahasthangarh, Varendra, Comilla and Dhaka in Bangladesh; Lahore, Taxila and Peshawar in Pakistan; Kabul in Afghanistan; and Kolkata, Delhi and Mathura locally.
How are new archaeological finds helping us understand the spread of Buddhism from India to different parts of Asia?
Parts of the subcontinent that include present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan were part of a colossal commercial route. It’s surprising to note that the first stupas for relics were built not in India but in Afghanistan by two merchants from Balkh. The first fasting Buddha image is believed to have been carved in stone at Sikri, a small village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Connections show up in unexpected ways. Travelling along the Grand Trunk Road from Lahore to Peshawar and Mardan in Pakistan and through Kabul, Bamiyan, Mazar-i-sharif and Samangan in Afghanistan, I came across the remains of a vast number of monasteries. They had magnificent stupas, shrines, assembly halls, refectories, stupa courts and bath houses. It shows that Buddhist rulers not only patronised Buddhist institutions, but also set up monasteries and stupas and hired craftsmen to decorate them.
It was from these establishments that monks went on missionary activities to China, where they translated Buddhist canonical works into the Chinese around the 4th century CE. We haven’t joined all the dots yet.