Trip To Afghanistan: Chanting Om Mani Padme Hum At Great Stupa In A Burqa

Sunita Dwivedi writes about great stupa of Top-e-Rustam and chanted Om Mani Padme Hum as a Muslim, clad in burqa.

It was my first visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of my independent project on the Buddhist heritage of Central Asia and ancient Gandhara region.

I was worried about the dress code in Afghanistan. After consulting friends I decided upon a long kurta-salwar with full sleeves and a bandhgala. Something like the sherwani. In black and beige. When I landed in Kabul, my friend, Fauzia, came in a burqa to receive me. Recognising me through her veil she rushed to give me a close hug like a long-lost friend and sister. By the time we drove to her residence in Kārte Parwān chatting all the way, she had become as interested in my project as myself. Ehsanullah, her brother, became our constant companion.

Before I embarked on my mission, she handed me a spare burqa so that I could do my work unnoticed and peacefully, and only take it off when I wanted myself to be photographed at the heritage sites. Wearing the burqa was a novel experience for me. It was strange that I, who had never even dreamt of veiling my face, was now covered from top to toe in black. Gradually I took to the burqa as a fish to water. I was wrapped up in black, not only while touring the villages of Aibak, Kakrak and Foladi, the Bagh-e-Babur, but also while enjoying the icy waters of the Paghman Darrah or picnicking at Zaheer Shah gardens on the outskirts of Kabul or while enjoying a quiet meal at the Serena Hotel.

The renowned Naubahar of Balkh, one of the most splendid monasteries of Afghanistan, lay a few kilometres from Mazar-i-Sharif. I was only a few kilometres from the site when a massive blast blew up the road. However, another Naubahar in the neighbouring city of Aibak, Samangan, was waiting for me. On the way, I stopped at a holy and wish granting chasma or a spring. I descended into it with Fauzia and Ehsanullah, threw coins and made a wish. The clear, cool spring gurgled with happiness and nature’s blessings.

At Aibak I circumambulated the great stupa of Top-e-Rustam and chanted Om Mani Padme Hum as a Muslim, clad in burqa.

When I alighted from the UNHAS flight at Bamiyan, Abbas Ali, my Hazara guide was there to receive me. He drove me to the Bamiyan Silk Road Hotel where many European and Asian scientists, including women, were staying. They were engaged in restoration work on the giant Buddhas dynamited in 2001, and to preserve cave paintings.

I saw that none of the women wore the burqa but just had their heads covered. I was relieved to follow them but never forgot to wrap my head in a shawl. I was able to move freely in the Titanic bazaar, visit antique shops, and meet carpet sellers who spoke to me in English. At a restaurant I sat on the floor to eat delicious pilaf and spicy curry laid out on a dastarkhan.  The warmth and love with which food was served, the eagerness of Afghani shop keepers to chat with a lady from Hindustan, added to the beauty of Bamiyan.

An ugly incident however took place at the village of Kakrak. On finding a bunch of women tilling their potato field and making cow dung cakes, I wanted to take photos. No sooner had I clicked a few shots that a volley of mud and stones was thrown at me. Abbas Ali told me that it was bad manners to photograph women without their consent. At Foladi, I tried to climb tall cliffs to look for cave paintings and was taken aback to see people living inside the heritage caves, tying their mules and donkeys in the rock enclosures and storing cattle fodder.

Sunita Dwivedi In Afghanistan

In Pakistan, I rarely saw anyone wearing the burqa. I moved about freely among the ruins at Taxila, explored the fort at Lahore and scoured the Sethian Mohalla and Kissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar. Besides, members of the Gandhara Art and Cultural Association were there to help me.

At Sikri village of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as news spread of an Indian woman touring their village to trace old roots of a Buddhist establishment, villagers rushed out of their homes and followed me everywhere. They pointed out remains of monastic mounds from where the famous Sikri stupa had been removed and taken for restoration to the Lahore Museum. The rare image of the ‘Fasting Siddharth’in black schist was also recovered from Sikri.

As I stopped at Sahri Bahlol village, there was a commotion. A massive crowd of encroachers who had built houses over the monastic city instantly collected on the hill. Zulfiqar Rahim of the GACA alerted me to the danger of being mistaken for the demolition squad and we beat a hasty retreat to avoid conflict. Zulfiqar informed me that the many villages that had come up on the ruins of Buddhist establishments are called dheris. The Department of Archaeology and Museums of Pakistan is currently excavating many such dheris and unearthing Buddhist antiquities.

A peep into the museums of Kabul, Lahore, Taxila and Peshawar with their giant Buddha statuaries, stucco art, paintings and stone reliefs of Jataka stories, discovered during explorations and excavations, opened my eyes to the architectural wealth of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Afghan Institute of Archaeology is now excavating the buried Buddhist cities of Mes Aynak in the Logar province and Tepe Narenj near Kabul. Similarly, new excavations are being carried out in Pakistan at the historic villages of Aziz Dheri, Sawal Dher in Mardan, Mian Khan in Katlang and Koi Tangey Kandaray where Buddhist antiquities from the 2^nd/3^rd century BC have been revealed. A couple of years ago, Pakistan unveiled the remains of the world’s oldest, 48-feet-long Sleeping Buddha dated 3^rd century CE at Haripur.

Sunita Dwivedi is a Silk Road traveller and author based in Delhi. She has published four volumes on Asia’s Buddhist heritage. Her latest book is Buddha in Gandhara. The views expressed are the author's own.