Swat is a natural geographic region surrounding the Swat River in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan which was part of ancient India. The name "Swat" is derived from the Swat River which is referred to as the Suvāstu in the Rig Veda. The literal meaning of Suvastu is "of fair dwellings”.
Swat had a Sanskrit name Udyana meaning garden or orchid and is locally referred to as Oddiyana. The origin of Hindu Shahis, a Hindu dynasty is traced to Odi tribes of Udyana as early as the 4th century CE. The Hindu Shahis (also known as Odi Shahis, Uḍi Śāhis, 822–1026 CE) were a dynasty that held sway over Kabulistan, Gandhara, and western Punjab during the early medieval period in the Indian subcontinent.
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| Evening at Mahodand lake, kalam, [Swat District or Swat] Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Bilalzahid12345, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
The average elevation of Swat is 980 m (3,220 ft), resulting in a considerably cooler and wetter climate compared to the rest of Pakistan. With lush forests, verdant meadows, and snow-capped mountains, Swat is one of the country's most popular tourist destinations.
The following is compiled from excerpts from the news report "Buddha attacked by Taliban gets a facelift in Pakistan" by Pakistan's Dawn newspaper issue dated June 25, 2012.
A rock image of Buddha, measuring 7x8 meters is near Mangalwar village 9 km North East of Mingora, a city in Swat. Known as Jahanabad Buddha now and Shakorai Buddha previously named after the same village in the region, it was "etched high on a huge rock face in the 6th or 7th century, is one of the largest such carvings in South Asia. It was attacked in the fall of 2007 when the Pakistani Taliban swarmed across the scenic Swat Valley".
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| Black and white photo (1989) of Shakorai Buddha relief before its destruction by the Taliban in 2007. https://www.lionsroar.com/pakistani-buddha-statue.../ |
"Taliban militants climbed ropes to insert explosives in holes drilled into the face and shoulders of the Jahanabad Buddha", said Luca Olivieri from the Italian Archaeological Mission in Swat. "The explosives in the shoulders failed to detonate, but the others blew off most of the face above the lips and cracked other parts of the carving and surrounding rock". Oliveri himself had to leave Swat in 2008 after more than two decades of tending to the riches dating back to the period of the invasion of Alexander from Greece, the Hindu and Buddhist rulers, and the Muslim invaders.
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| Jahan Abad Stupa -1 After destruction by extremists By Hamiduos - Hamiduos, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
"Olivieri's mission is funded by the Italian government, which works with local Pakistani antiquities authorities. It has uncovered over 120 Buddhist sites among Swat's soaring hills and rushing rivers. Of roughly 200 Buddhist rock carvings in Swat, the Jahanabad Buddha was among the few to survive with its face intact for so long, said Olivieri. Most were defaced centuries ago by Muslim invaders who, like the Taliban, consider Buddha a false idol.
'Extremists have a history of targeting Buddhist, Hindu, and other religious sites they consider heretical to Islam. Six months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Taliban shocked the world by dynamiting a pair of 1,500-year-old Buddhist statues in central Afghanistan.
"Maulana Shamsur Rehman, a leading politician in Swat, says the attack on the Buddha should never have happened. Islam preaches freedom and protection for followers of all religions, he told The Associated Press, and "in line with Islamic rules, nobody should have an objection to the repair work on the Buddha statue.
"In 2001, militants damaged the excavated ruins of a 7th-century Hindu temple in Swat overlooking a stronghold conquered by Alexander in the 4th century B.C. Unable to protect the temple, the Italian mission had to rebury it.
"Pakistani security officials say the Taliban are again trying to infiltrate Swat, but militants are not the only threat to the archaeological sites. Looters are perhaps a bigger problem. Many relics looted from Swat are in private and public collections around the world.
"In December police arrested several men in Swat and seized a roughly one-meter-(three-foot) tall, 1,800-year-old Buddhist statue that could have fetched tens of thousands of dollars on the international antiquities market.
"The Italian mission has posted guards at the most important sites and is also training them to become guides by teaching them English, first aid, and basic conservation techniques, said Olivieri.
"The mission opened in 1955 in an office provided by the Wali of Swat, the one-time princely ruler of the territory. To furnish a taste of home, its first draftsman painted a mural of Rome's Spanish Steps in the dining room".
The Italian Archaeological Mission in Swat completed restoration work on the image in 2016 but the face of the Buddha image is not quite the same as it was before its destruction by the Taliban 14 centuries after its creation.
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| architecturaltimes.news |
"Whatever you do in the absence of perfect data is a fake," said Olivieri, who says he has wanted to be an archaeologist since age 6 and still brings a youthful exuberance to his work even as his beard grows gray.
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