{"id":31310,"date":"2017-11-16T16:01:22","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T11:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=31310"},"modified":"2017-11-16T16:01:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T11:01:22","slug":"pakistan-unveils-1700-year-old-sleeping-buddha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=31310","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan unveils 1,700-year-old sleeping Buddha"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>HARIPUR Nov 16 (TNS):<\/strong> Pakistan has unveiled the remains of a 1,700-year-old sleeping Buddha image, part of an initiative to encourage tourism and project religious harmony in the troubled region.<\/p>\n<p>A reflection of the diverse history and culture of the country, the ancient Buddhist site in Bhamala, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was first discovered in 1929.<\/p>\n<p>Eighty-eight years on, excavations resumed and the 14-metre-(48-foot)-high Kanjur stone Buddha image was unearthed, with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan presiding over the presentation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is from the 3rd century AD, making it the world\u2019s oldest sleeping Buddha remains,\u201d Abdul Samad, director of Bhamala\u2019s archaeology and museums department, told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have discovered over 500 Buddha objects and this 48-foot-long sleeping Buddha remains,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8216;Assets for our country&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a question of preserving these heritage sites which are an asset for our country,\u201d\u00a0Khan said.<\/p>\n<p>The region was once the centre of Buddhist civilisation that took root under the Mauryan king Ashoka 2,300 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Recent attempts to improve Pakistan\u2019s image have included overtures to minority communities by the ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.<\/p>\n<p>In January, the then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the restoration of Hindu temples at Katas Raj in Punjab.<\/p>\n<p>Khan, whose party rules KP, said that the preservation of sites like Bhamala could promote tourism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a world heritage site (and) because of it, people can come for religious tourism and see these places,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Talking about the ongoing protest by religious parties in Islamabad, Khan said, \u201cIt\u2019s a very small part of what is happening in Pakistan. The majority of the population wants to see such sites restored\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HARIPUR Nov 16 (TNS): Pakistan has unveiled the remains of a 1,700-year-old sleeping Buddha image, part of an initiative to encourage tourism and project religious harmony in the troubled region. A reflection of the diverse history and culture of the country, the ancient Buddhist site in Bhamala, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was first discovered in 1929. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[701,23],"tags":[856,589],"class_list":["post-31310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haripur","category-national","tag-haripur","tag-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31312,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31310\/revisions\/31312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}