Japanese professor warns of losing the archeological site forever if Gandhara is not excavated

This was stated by Japanese professor and archaeologist Masaya Masul at Japanese Counselor Toshikazu Isomura’s residence on Thursday evening. He was speaking on the challenges of maintaining archeological sites, with reference to a report titled “Kyoto University
Scientific Expedition to Gandhara -Surveyed 1983-1992” that was handed over to Pakistan on Wednesday.

Professor Masul said that if these sites are not excavated, then the site might be lost forever. Work undertaken at the Ranigat site included restoration, management and conservation activities.

Located atop a hill in Buner district, Ranigat is the largest Buddhist monastic complex in Gandhara, scattered over an area of 700×1100 square metres. The site was protected under the Antiquity Act of 1975.

According to internationally-accepted conservation criteria, reconstruction should be avoided at the site. However, in order to help local people and tourists gain a better understanding, a Buddist temple was reconstructed, after conducting a detailed scientific
survey during the excavation.

Masul added that the site has been neglected for too long. Although the government has been allocating funds for preservation of cultural heritage, they never matched the volume of work.

In 1994, a team from Koyoto University, Japan excavated some sites but the focus remained on Ranigat, since all of them could not be preserved. The site is now in the process of being included in the World Heritage site as a Gandhara monument. “After devolution,
it has become difficult for a scientific mission to  work on these sites, because several projects are now being financed by the provincial government.”

The site should be included in the list of Gandhara sites to be developed for cultural tourism under the government’s plan. These sites don’t need money as much as they need time-if not preserved this will turn into a jungle,” said Masul.

“We request the Pakistani government to educate workers about excavation, Masul said. Funding and work should be ongoing, he added. “We managed to train 400 locals, who had been working on the site for years.” The work educated them about the importance
of the site, he added.

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Posted by Naveed A Bari on Mar 10 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry